I am the only being whose doom
No tongue would ask, no eye would mourn;
I never caused a thought of gloom,
A smile of joy, since I was born.
Oh Emily Brontë - how wrong you are! I don't know if this poem of yours is autobiographical or not, but you really have caused many smiles of joy and thoughts of gloom, and all sorts of other feelings, since you were born 200 years ago on 30 July 1818 in West Yorkshire.
Think how many people have swooned over Heathcliff - surely the ultimate Byronic hero - and been captivated by the passion and strangeness of Wuthering Heights, Emily's only published novel. It is in many ways a brutal and nasty book, considered shocking when it was first published in 1847, but has stood the test of time to be considered one of the greatest novels in the English language.
Emily is also known for her intense, intellectual poetry, although reading 'I am the only being whose doom' has made feel a tad bit gloomy. In her isolated, seemingly lonely life, did she really feel that she had to keep her emotions under control because they were corrupting her? Or has she created a narrator to explore her thoughts around emotions and the need to be loved? We'll never know, for Emily Brontë is so very elusive, perhaps the most mysterious of her incredible family.
She is also a canvas on which other authors have speculated - both about her life and about some of the gaps in Wuthering Heights.
I don't really know how comfortable Emily would be with all this continued attention, but I hope she knows that she's appreciated the world over. We'll certainly be remembering her - and her wonderful way with words- on her birthday. I'll leave you with this quote I love from Chapter 9 of Wuthering Heights:
I've dreamt in my life dreams that have stayed with me ever after, and changed my ideas: they've gone through and through me, like wine through water, and altered the colour of my mind.
Do you have any favourite Emily Brontë poems or quotes or Heathcliffs?
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