Tuesday, November 11, 2014

"The Night Wind" - Emily Bronte

Emily Bronte is an English writer and was born July 1818 and lived for thirty years. She is known mainly for her novel Wuthering Heights which has received critical acclaim around the world.

"The Night Wind"

In summer's mellow midnight,
A cloudless moon shone through
Our open parlour window,
And rose-trees wet with dew.

I sat in silent musing;
The soft wind waved my hair;
It told me heaven was glorious,
And sleeping earth was fair.

I needed not its breathing
To bring such thoughts to me;
But still it whispered lowly,
How dark the woods will be!

"The thick leaves in my murmur
Are rustling like a dream,
And all their myriad voices
Instinct with spirit seem."

I said, "Go, gentle singer,
Thy wooing voice is kind:
But do not think its music
Has power to reach my mind.

"Play with the scented flower,
The young tree's supple bough,
And leave my human feelings
In their own course to flow."

The wanderer would not heed me;
Its kiss grew warmer still.
"O come!" it sighed so sweetly;
"I'll win thee 'gainst thy will.

"Were we not friends from childhood?
Have I not loved thee long?
As long as thou, the solemn night,
Whose silence wakes my song.

"And when thy heart is resting
Beneath the church-aisle stone,
I shall have time for mourning,
And THOU for being alone."


This nine quatrain poem is written in an extremely straightforward and concise way. With this style of writing, the reader is able to quickly identify the situation and the setting. The first stanza is straight and to the point and begins to explain both the temporal (during a summer night) and the spacial (near an open parlor window) setting of the poem. A few stanzas later we can discern the situation of the poem and what is going on. While the narrator is sitting by the window, the wind blows by and begins talking with her and tempting her. The wind is personified as a "wanderer" and a "singer" causing the temptation to become more sinister and deadly coming from a "human" figure. Although not directly stated it appears as if the wind is tempting the narrator into the darkness.. As shown in many other plays and stories, a midnight during the summer is a prime to time for devils and demons to be lurking about. If the narrator were to follow she would most likely encounter her demise. In the last stanza, the wind eerily says how when the narrator dies she will be alone but the wind/devil will continue on. This can be likened to today's society and teenagers of our time. The first thing that comes to mind is peer pressure. As young and very easily influenced people, teenagers are easily tricked by demons and led towards sin. The narrator of this poem appears to be fighting back the temptations and keep the wind from entering her mind.

2 comments:

  1. Try to stay within the poem as much as possible - you make some interesting assertions but some of them might not matter in the context of this piece. Focus on the details and the language that are explicit.

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  2. I believe that Bronte wants to reveal something that is personal. The real meaning of this poem is in her heart.

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