Emily Bronte Poetry Analysis

Often rebuked, yet always back returning
To those first feelings that were born with me,
And leaving busy chase of wealth and learning
For idle dreams of things which cannot be:

To-day, I will seek not the shadowy region;
Its unsustaining vastness waxes drear;
And visions rising, legion after legion,
Bring the unreal world too strangely near.

I'll walk, but not in old heroic traces,
And not in paths of high morality,
And not among the half-distinguished faces,
The clouded forms of long-past history.

I'll walk where my own nature would be leading:
It vexes me to choose another guide:
Where the gray flocks in ferny glens are feeding;
Where the wild wind blows on the mountain side

What have those lonely mountains worth revealing?
More glory and more grief than I can tell:
The earth that wakes one human heart to feeling
Can centre both the worlds of Heaven and Hell.

The poem above is titled “Often rebuked, yet always back returning” and it was written by Emily Bronte. Many critics call it her finest poem… I’d like to share my thoughts about it.

The first stanza I think is about how Bronte has an urge to let go of her fame as an author and go back to much smaller, simpler goals… maybe dreams she once had before discovering her affinity for writing. “Often rebuked, yet always back returning” means she often is criticized for her other dreams, but always goes back to them regardless.

The second stanza is her searching for happiness. “Today, I will seek not the shadowy region” could be her way of saying that she isn’t going to look for the negativity in things… instead; she’s going to be much more positive. “Unsustaining vastness” could be a reference to how sadness and grumpiness are so easy to fall into, and so hard to get out of. Also, when you are down, things DO seem like they are never enough and you lose hope in just about everything.

The third stanza is her way of saying that she wants to be different in whatever she does- not like everyone else who has gone before her. She wants to leave her own mark on history, not just follow along in the path set by another. To incorporate the words of another famous poet- she wants to “take the path less traveled by”.

Stanzas four and five are still talking about being free, and walking her own path in life- not letting others define her or who she is or tell her how to live her life.

I think that all in all, the poem is about her trying to break free from depression and sadness that were taking over her life. I feel that she wasn’t happy with the way her life was headed, and she wanted to be free and live her own life HAPPILY regardless of what other thought. The poem is very powerful… I can see why critics called it her best poem.