Poetry Corner 01. What it's about & Our first poem, Life by Charlotte Brontë
They say a picture is worth a thousand words, well I say a poem contains thousands of pictures.
Poems are, for me, an expression of the human spirit. When I read poetry, I am transported into the experiences and emotions of another human being, and perhaps another place and time entirely. I find that poetry frees the contents of my mind, allowing me to loosen up to new ways of thinking, perceiving, communicating and imagining.
‘Poems, like art, are the birthplace of thought.’ — Jordan B. Peterson.
Poetry exists in the space between dreams and articulated concepts. It combines imagery, symbol and metaphor, and brings to light things that can dwell in obscurity, that aren’t quite yet ready to be expressed in concise idea.
As you can imagine, I love both reading and writing poetry. For me, it allows inscrutable, often overwhelming feelings to be felt and processed. It also fills up the spaces between us, which I love, bonding us through shared experience that transcends time and death (a lot of my favourite poems were written by poets who died before I was born).
I created Poetry Corner to share my favourite poems and some of my own ones with you. My criteria for choosing poems are quite simple: Did it inspire or intrigue me? Did it make me feel expansive in some way? I want to dig into the reasons why they resonate with me, pick apart the underlying layers upon layers of their meaning, and share these with you, too.
With this intention, I will share a poem close to my heart once a week along with some commentary on it. I think knowing the composition of a poem (how it is structured, its themes, literary devices, etc.) can help with its interpretation and in understanding our own responses to it. I also think that knowing about the poet and their life is important in appreciating the context of the work, so I’ll also share some biographical information about the poet at the end.
The date I share a particular poem will also bear some meaning in relation to the poem and/or the poet, which I will also reveal in the commentary I give.
I’ve decided to organise these poems seasonally, reflecting the changing feelings and experiences we go through in the cycles of the year; Spring a time of birth and renewal, Summer a time of playfulness, expansion and abundance, Autumn a time for closure and shedding, Winter a time of hibernation and reflection.
Poems are dense packets of information. I continually find myself returning to the same ones, and gleaning something else new from them each time. So I hope that you might return to them and also experience this benefit. On first reading, maybe you might feel something, maybe you might not. Perhaps the seeds of thoughts take root, or maybe they lie dormant for some time, but rest assured that they will have their own growth and bear fruit for you. Later on, when the time is right, you may find yourself comprehending much that was at first incomprehensible, as I have many, many times.
I hope you enjoy this section of the newsletter. I hope that it brings you joy and something of value. Please share your impressions with me in the comments, I love to hear them!
Now, with that said, onto our first poem, Life by Charlotte Brontë…
Life
LIFE, believe, is not a dream
So dark as sages say;
Oft a little morning rain
Foretells a pleasant day.
Sometimes there are clouds of gloom,
But these are transient all;
If the shower will make the roses bloom,
O why lament its fall ?
Rapidly, merrily,
Life's sunny hours flit by,
Gratefully, cheerily,
Enjoy them as they fly !
What though Death at times steps in
And calls our Best away ?
What though sorrow seems to win,
O'er hope, a heavy sway ?
Yet hope again elastic springs,
Unconquered, though she fell;
Still buoyant are her golden wings,
Still strong to bear us well.
Manfully, fearlessly,
The day of trial bear,
For gloriously, victoriously,
Can courage quell despair !
Charlotte Brontë
I chose to begin Poetry Corner with ‘Life’ by Charlotte Bronte, because its message is both uplifting and reassuring, and we (well, at least me) could use some of that right now.
It begins with the wonderful lines, ‘LIFE believe, is not a dream/So dark as sages say’. The capitals add power and strength to the poet’s conviction that life is not a “dark dream”, as she boldly refutes this claim made by sages (wise men).
It’s a very poignant message for me. Sometimes I feel like I’m surrounded by negativity, and the world can feel like a scary and crazy place, and it makes me afraid and cynical. But this poem looks to dispel these dark thoughts, and challenge the notion that life is pointless suffering. The poet asserts that, on the contrary, distress, anxiety, and fear in our life can be the bearer of better, brighter moments waiting to happen.
Structure
The poem is symmetrical (a stanza of eight lines followed by four lines, repeated) and the rhyming scheme of the poem is AB AB, which gives it a persistent forward momentum, mirroring life’s constant movement and expansion.
This purposeful lyricism matters. Firstly, it means we are more likely to remember it, which was particularly important when poetry was only passed on orally. And secondly, rhyme and rhythm have a resonance, which we respond to. I find it incredibly interesting that rhyming poetry can literally re-organises the networks in our brain, and improve our mood by eliciting more positively perceived and felt emotions.1
Themes
The theme of this poem is faith and acceptance. Rain and gloomy weather are used as a metaphor for despair and suffering. As sunshine/light and life follow the rainfall, hope can follow after sorrow. In this way, the rain (and pain/death) is not something to dread. It is simply part of the natural eb and flow movement of life: rain/sun, sorrow/hope, joy/pain, spring/winter.
Although the poem reflects on the negativities, I find it encouraging. No matter the trial, the poet does not sway in her conviction that hope (light) will triumph in the end, if we courageously choose it over fear (dark).
Imagery
The poet uses the weather to evoke emotion and create vivid scenes: rain, morning showers, and clouds of gloom, juxtaposed with sunny hours, golden wings and roses blooming, that are all constantly in flux.
The poet’s use of imagery evokes the springtime, and she also uses “spring” to describe hope. Spring has multiple meanings: as a noun, for the season of rebirth, between Winter and Summer, when nature revives and renews, and as a verb, meaning something’s ability to return to its usual shape after being under stress. To me, the poet is telling us that we can bear life’s stresses. We can bend, fall, cry, but not break and we will feel alright again, just as surely as the Spring makes a comeback after Winter.
Summary
Difficult events and emotions, of grief, fear and pain, can paralyse us. Yet hope is moving and “buoyant”— “Hope again elastic springs.” Having hope can help us to find the trickle of movement within us that can allow us to re-align with the current of life.
Charlotte’s sister, Anne Brontë’s last words to her were ‘Take Courage Charlotte! Take Courage!’ It is extremely moving to me that she chose to end the poem with positivity. Even deep in the midst of death and loss of loved ones (she survived all her five siblings), she still believes “gloriously, victoriously, can courage quell despair !”
This poem makes me feel is as if I’ve passed through a light (April) shower, and come out on the other side feeling refreshed and uplifted. Maybe my clothes are damp, but my spirit has found comfort and renewal.
Change doesn’t happen without stress and some pain. I’ve always felt like I need to fix the stress and any negative emotions I feel. I’ve always seen them as bad things. When I was younger, I really hated stress and anxiety because I believed it meant something terrible was going to happen. But now I am re-appraising stress as a healthy, adaptive response, that’s part of the flow taking me toward the life I want to create. This poem helps me feel more competent and confident in moments when I’m exposed to threatening emotions, knowing that I can confront them and I can tolerate it, and even more, try to move with the situation at hand and make the best out of it.
I chose this date for this poem because it marks the beginning of Springtime, and also the anniversary of Charlotte’s death, the 31st March 1855, which was three weeks before her 39th birthday.
Charlotte Brontë (born April 21, 1816, Thornton, Yorkshire, England. Died March 31, 1855, Haworth, Yorkshire)
Charlotte Brontë was a 19th century English writer whose novel Jane Eyre (published in 1847) is considered one of the greatest ever written. She was the eldest of the three Brontë sisters (Charlotte, Emily and Anne) who survived into adulthood and all three published novels (most famously Wuthering Heights, by Emily Brontë, and Agnes Grey by Ann Brontë). The sisters originally published their poems and novels under male pen names — Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell. ‘Life’ was originally published under her pen name, Currer Bell.
Charlotte’s father, Rev. Brontë, the parson of the local parish, Haworth, Yorkshire. He was quite absent and not particularly interested in his children. Her mother died when she was five years old, leaving Charlotte, her four sisters, Maria, Elizabeth, Emily and Anne, and her brother Branwell in the care of their aunt, Mrs. Branwell. In the Brontës’ childhood, writing and fantasy world building was a form of entertainment and wondrous escape. Charlotte and her brother Branwell created the imaginary fictional world of Glasstown and Angria, while Emily and Anne created the northern landscape of Gondal.
In 1824 Maria, Elizabeth, Charlotte and Emily were sent to Cowan Bridge, a school for clergymen's daughters. The frigid and dismal conditions caused them all to become weak and sick, and permanently affected their health. Her two elder sisters, Maria and Elizabeth, both caught tuberculosis and died young. The rest of the siblings finished their schooling at home.
As an adult, Charlotte worked as a teacher from 1835 to 1838 in Belgium, and returned to England to be a governess. She used these experiences as material for her novels.
Between 1848 and 1849 Charlotte lost her remaining siblings: Emily, Branwell and Anne. In 1854 she married the Rev. Arthur Bell Nicholls, curate of Haworth. She caught pneumonia, and died the next year, on 31 March 1855.
Charlotte’s impact on the Victorian society of her day was explosive. She dared to candidly express her thoughts and desires in a time when a woman’s ideas weren’t wanted. She fearlessly gave a voice to her experience, questioned conventions, and brought forth an inner world that still speaks to us today and has relevancy to life now, over a century later.
Thank you for reading. See you next week!
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S000169182200021X