Cold In The Earth By Emily Brontë

Background information on Emily Brontë Born on 30 July 1818 in Yorkshire, England to Maria and Patrick Brontë. Fifth of six children; sister to Charlotte and Anne Brontë. Her mother died in 1821 when Emily was 3 years old. She joined her 4 older sisters at Clergy Daughters’ School for a brief period. Soon after, 2 of her sisters, Maria and Elizabeth died. The remaining children were then educated at home by their father and aunt, Elizabeth Branwell. Their aunt died in 1842. In 1846, the remaining 3 sisters, Emily, Charlotte and Anne, had published a volume of poems using the pen names Ellis, Currer and Acton Bell, respectively. Emily’s most notable work, Wuthering Heights, was published in 1847. Emily caught a cold during her brother’s, Branwell, funeral in September 1848. She became extremely ill but refused all medical help. She died on 19 December 1848 of tuberculosis.

A note before reading the poem: It is not sure who this poem was written to, but Emily had experienced many deaths in her family before her own in 1847. Keep this in mind before you read the poem and analysis 

Cold in the earth, and the deep snow piled above thee Cold in the earth, and the deep snow piled above thee! Far, far removed, cold in the dreary grave! Have I forgot, my Only Love, to love thee, Severed at last by Time's all-wearing wave? Now, when alone, do my thoughts no longer hover Over the mountains on Angora's shore; Resting their wings where heath and fern-leaves cover That noble heart for ever, ever more? Cold in the earth, and fifteen wild Decembers From those brown hills have melted into spring-- Faithful indeed is the spirit that remembers After such years of change and suffering! Sweet Love of youth, forgive if I forget thee While the World's tide is bearing me along: Sterner desires and darker hopes beset me, Hopes which obscure but cannot do thee wrong.

No other Sun has lightened up my heaven; No other Star has ever shone for me: All my life's bliss from thy dear life was given All my life's bliss is in the grave with thee. But when the days of golden dreams had perished And even Despair was powerless to destroy, Then did I learn how existence could be cherished, Strengthened and fed without the aid of joy; Then did I check the tears of useless passion, Weaned my young soul from yearning after thine; Sternly denied its burning wish to hasten Down to that tomb already more than mine! And even yet, I dare not let it languish, Dare not indulge in Memory's rapturous pain; Once drinking deep of that divinest anguish, How could I seek the empty world again?

Unknown Words Angora: Now known as Ankara. In Turkey. Weaned: to accustom to managing without something on which they have become dependent on. Rapturous: Characterized by feeling, or expressing great pleasure or enthusiasm.

Ideas Death; Coldness Loss Guilt Even though the poem is about Brontë’s lost love, it does not seem to be a lament filled with grief. Instead it has ideas of loss and guilt. There is acknowledgement that after one’s loss, one can heal with time and move on.

First Glance Techniques used: First person narration Audience: Brontë’s lost loved one. Consistent rhyme scheme (ABAB) suggests peace and harmony; she is beginning to let go and be thankful for what she had with her lost love. Lots of archaic language used in this poem: ‘thee’, ‘thine’… Techniques used: Capitalization Rhetorical Questions Repetition Slight use of imagery

Techniques used The rhetorical questions are really effective, since Brontë’s loved one can’t actually answer them since they are dead. Not much repetition is used, but the one that stood out the most was ‘Far, far’: this emphasizes on how far her love is away from her and their distance of separation between the realm of the living and the dead. Also, some punctuation is effective, especially the exclamation marks as they could be a cry out to the heavens where her lost love could be.

Significance of the Capitalism The capitalism emphasizes those specific words and seems to convey a hidden message: ‘Only Love’, ‘Time’, ‘Love’, ‘World’, ‘Sun’, ‘Star’, ‘Despair’, ‘Memory’. Brontë remembers about her ‘Only Love’ and their ‘Time’ together, but also the time in which they have been dead. The ‘World’ has moved her along, but she remembers how her love had brightened up her world as her ‘Sun’ and ‘Star’. She feels ‘Despair’ from her loss, but now all she has is the ‘Memory’ of her lost love.

‘Cold in the Earth’ The title has been repeated twice throughout the poem, with mentions of Winter with the ‘deep snow’ and ‘fifteen wild Decembers’ (since December is a Winter month in the Northern Hemisphere) ‘Cold’ could refer to the cold corpse of her ‘Sweet Love of youth’, buried underneath the ground; the absence of life and warmth. The title provides a feeling of iciness that is carried on throughout the poem until the poet changes tone in stanza five.

‘Have I forgot, my Only Love, to love thee, Severed at last by Time’s all wearing wave? She feels guilty about forgetting her love, and for not loving him as strongly as she did, even after ‘fifteen wild Decembers’. It is because that time heals, and people learn to move on and that ‘existence could be cherished, Strengthened and fed without the aid of joy.’ Brontë still remains ‘faithful’, but only if her ‘spirit remembers’ especially after years of ‘change and suffering’ She asks her ‘Sweet Love of youth’ to forgive her if she ‘forgets thee’. But it is natural to slowly forget certain aspects of someone, especially after a long period of time where their presence is missing from your life.

Contrasts of Dark & Light ‘Sterner desires*and darker hopes*beset me, Hopes which obscure but cannot do thee wrong.’ ‘No other Sun has lightened up my heaven; No other Star has ever shone for me’ She refers to her love as an angel with the imagery of ‘wings’ in the second stanza. Brontë states that even though she must move on, and may forget her ‘Sweet Love of youth’, her life is just not as bright as it was when they were in her life; they ‘lightened up her heaven’ and took all her happiness to the grave with them: ‘All my life’s bliss is in the grave with thee.’ *oxymoron

Loss Though she may have felt coldness and darkness, she remembers the good memories with her lost love, and refers to them as ‘golden dreams’, and is glad that they shared them together: ‘existence could be cherished’. In the last two stanzas, Brontë’s acceptance of loss is clear; she had wasted many years crying tears of ‘useless passion’ and desperately ‘yearning after thine’, so desperate that she wanted to join them in the realm of the dead, but her desire to live was stronger than her will to die to join her love; she ‘sternly denied’ her ‘young soul’s’ ‘burning wish to hasten Down to that tomb’… She knows she must move on, but after all those years, she is still feeling ‘rapturous pain’ and ‘divinest anguish’. She feels the world is just not the same without her love: ‘How could I seek the empty world again?’ Her world was complete with her love’s existence; they were her ‘Sun’, ‘Star’ and her whole ‘life’s bliss’.

Just a note: This was mostly my perspective on the poem, some of you might pick up some things or disagree with them. If you want to add anything else, feel free to  By Elaine