Emily Brontë was without doubt the finest poet in the Brontë family, even though her sisters Anne and Charlotte, and brother Branwell Brontë, were all capable of producing fine verse of their own. At the heart of her creative powers Emily gave up writing poetry, and it was on this day 1846 that she wrote the first draft of her final poem.
It was a first draft, however, which proved to be very different to the one which would follow. Emily Brontë very helpfully dated “Why ask to know the date – the clime” September 14th 1846, and it was an epic 264 lines long. She then put her pen down and wrote no further poetry until 13th May 1848. This poem was a mere 26 lines, but although a tenth of its length “Why ask to know what date what clime” is clearly a reworking, a completion, of Emily’s earlier poem.
These are the only poems that we know Emily Brontë wrote in the last two years of her life, and in the time after she had finished writing Wuthering Heights. Much has been written as to why Emily laid down her pen, but I think the sheer effort involved in writing the novel and in finding a publisher had completely drained Emily’s love of writing. A very shy woman, she had never harboured a desire to see her name or her work in print; writing itself was the end product for Emily, it was one she could share with her sisters but not the world. The opening up of work which had been so private to Emily was an intensely painful process for Emily, and it seems to me that she had resolved not to write again – which is why I believe that Emily Brontë had not started a second novel, and nor would she ever have done.
So, what are these poems, these two very different forms of one poem, about? They are clearly set in Gondal, the imaginary land Emily and Anne created in childhood and which continued to dominate Emily’s imagination throughout her life. They are deep, dark poems with an apocalyptic feel – poems full of destruction, full of defiance. It is for this reason that some see the shadow of Branwell Brontë, who by this time was hopelessly and finally addicted to alcohol and laudanum, looming large over Emily’s composition.
I present both poems to you now, reproduced from the very fine Penguin Classics version of The Complete Poems of Emily Jane Brontë. The initial poem is headed ‘168’ and the shorter, reworked version, Emily’s final poem, is headed ‘169’:
These were Emily’s final poems, but they were still powerful, memorable and mystifying as much of her best work. I hope you will join me next week for another new Brontë blog post.