To view more poems I have examined, click HERE.
It Will Not Shine Again
by Emily Brontë
It will not shine again:
Its sad course is done;
I have seen the last ray wane
Of the cold, bright sun.
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This short four line poem (ABAB rhyme scheme, no set meter) from Emily Brontë seems to predict a calamity. Either the Speaker knows that the sun is about to explode, OR she is telling us that she will not be around anymore when it rises.
The Victorian Gothic novelist giving us short poetic bleakness? Well… yes.
Hopefully she is being over-dramatic here. Using words like “sad,” “wane,” and “cold” to describe the source of earth’s heat is telling us that she is detached from feeling – perhaps from reality – by something about which we do not know. We can imagine heartache or heartbreak eliciting such feelings of woe, death, oblivion, and despair.
Then again… maybe the sun is going to explode overnight.
