Best Poems of the Brontë Sisters by Emily Brontë

Best Poems of the Brontë Sisters Reviews

• 
  Alex ☣ Deranged KittyCat ☣

  Ray Bradbury says to read poetry every day of your life. So I started paying attention to him and took the opportunity when I came across
  Best Poems of the Brontë Sisters.
  
  
  
  This short collection of poems felt perfect on this rainy day.
  
  I have to confess I disliked both Wuthering Heights and Jane Eyre as they had been imposed on me in school. Actually, I dislike most classics. And, yet, this book made me feel guilty for the harsh treatment of the Brontë's works.
  
  The poems are absolutely beautiful, and I can't believe that this anthology had sold only two copies when it was first published. They are beautiful and painful. They evoke the grieve, the loneliness, the dreams and the love of the sisters. Charlotte's two poems (each one written after Emily's and Anne's death) were heartbreaking. As was Anne's Last Lines, written after Emily's death, and shortly before her own demise.
  
  I fell in love with Charlotte's Regret and The Teacher's Monologue, with Emily's The Night-Wind, and with (my absolute favorite) Anne's If This Be All.
  
  If Life must be so full of care,
  Then call me soon to Thee;
  Or give me strength enough to bear
  My load of misery.
  (from If This Be All - Anne Brontë)
  
  
  Best Poems of the Brontë Sisters is my first 2016-favorite book, and I highly recommend it to all poetry-lovers or fans of the sisters' works.
  
  *I thank Dover Publications and Netgalley for this copy in exchange for an honest review.
• 
  Trish

  This little book contains a collection of poems from three of the most well-known women in literature.
  The best known works are of course the novels Jane Eyre (Charlotte) and Wuthering Heights (Emily), but The Tenant of Wildfell Hall and Agnes Grey (both by Anne) are known as well.
  All in all, the three sisters definitely had talent, there is no denying it (which makes it even more sad that they had or thought they had to publish under male pseudonyms - Currer Bell for Charlotte, Ellis Bell for Emily and Acton Bell for Anne - at first)!
  
  What I didn't know was that they had written poems as well. Since I love poetry I had to have this little collection of course - and I was not disappointed. As with the novels, the poems as well are pretty dark (they are about death, loss and regret mostly) but heartbreakingly beautiful, hauntingly beautiful.
  So I started looking up the sisters' biographies and it became pretty clear WHAT causes the melancholy:
  
  Originally there were six siblings - Maria, Elizabeth, Charlotte, Patrick Branwell, Emily Jane and Anne.
  Maria died of tuberculosis, which she had gotten at school, at the age of eleven. Since the second oldest, Elizabeth, joined her oldest sister at the college shortly before that, she unfortunately suffered the same fate (dying at age 10).
  As far as I was able to find out, it was not unusual for schools to be a health risk back then. For example, several decades before the Brontë sisters' experience, Jane Austen and her sister Cassandra contracted typhus at a similar boarding school, and Jane nearly died! The Austen sisters' education, like that of the Brontë sisters, was continued at home after that.
  Charlotte blamed the school for her sisters' deaths, especially its poor medical care (repeated emetics and blood-lettings) and the negligence of the school's doctor who was the director's brother-in-law. Charlotte's vivid memories were poured into her depiction of Lowood School in Jane Eyre.
  Branwell had a lot of interests (it is rumoured that he was some sort of genius) like painting and writing but became addicted to alcohol and laudanum (an opium tincture) and eventually died of tuberculosis when he was 31 years old.
  Thus, it is safe to say that the sisters knew loss and heardship.
  Emily was the next to die (in 1848). She was, supposedly, the most talented of them all. She was very timid and loved wandering around the moors where they all lived. She never married. She also refused treatment when her health declined due to consumption.
  Only one year later, in 1849, Anne died as well. However, she did try to fight it by insisting to be taken to a town near the sea (it was believed that salty air was helpful). However, as with all her siblings before her, there was nothing to be done. She was only 28.
  In the end, it was only Charlotte, which definitely explains the darkness of her poems (she wrote one both for Emily and Anne after they died). Charlotte was in love with her publisher for some time. They never got into a relationship however. She also declined one of her father's curates, but changed her mind (despite saying that he was too conventional in his ways and that her status as "wife" terrified her) and married him in 1854. Maybe it was the loneliness that she wanted to get rid of because although he apparently was a good husband, I can't see Charlotte as a married woman. All biographer's describe her and her sisters as being very timid but also very emancipated.
  She died one year later in 1855 (she was pregnant at the time, there was dirty water involved so it probably was tuberculosis combined with typhoid fever). She was only 38.
  
  Thus, it is quite understandable that there is some sort of myth about this family, as if they had been blessed with extreme talent but also cursed with early deaths.
  I always find biographical details important and very interesting. Sure, in this case (as with the novels and poems), it's also very tragic and saddening but it does explain the writing styles.
  
  Anyway, this review is supposed to be about the poems. *lol*
  The book contains 10 poems written by Charlotte, 23 by Emily and 14 by Anne. My favourites by Charlotte are Regret, Parting and the two about her sisters' deaths (I cannot even begin to imagine what it must have felt like to be the last one left of 6 siblings and to have to see them die one after the other). My favourites by Emily are Rememberence and Hope. My favourites by Anne are If This Be All and The Bluebell.
  Yeah, they aren't the most optimistic poems to be sure, but they all have a distinct style, each their very own voice and they are all a thing of beauty!
  
• 
  Kathleen

  I have only read one novel by each sister so far, but given those, rank them Emily, Charlotte, and trailing by quite a ways, Anne. I didn’t expect to like Anne’s poetry--since I didn’t find her prose very poetic—but she took me by surprise.
  
  Charlotte’s poems were, I don’t know … annoying. Even the few I liked were very preachy.
  
  I agree with the majority opinion that Emily’s poetry is best. It’s probably not surprising, given her intense style, that I loved some and others did absolutely nothing for me.
  
  I’d love to memorize her “To Imagination.” Here’s a taste from the middle of the poem:
  But, thou art ever there, to bring
  The hovering vision back, and breathe
  New glories o’er the blighted spring,
  And call a lovelier Life from Death,
  And whisper, with a voice divine,
  Of real worlds, as bright as thine.
  
  My favorite of Emily’s was probably “The Night Wind.” As most of her poems, it’s a beautifully woven little story, so you have to read the whole thing. Haunting.
  
  Anne’s poetry was the most consistently enjoyable for me, and also to my surprise, the saddest.
  
  I liked all of them, but had two favorites. “Past Days,” that begins:
  ‘Tis strange to think, there was a time
  When mirth was not an empty name,
  When laughter really cheered the heart,
  And frequent smiles unbidden came,
  And tears of grief would only flow
  In sympathy for others’ woe;
  
  The book ends with Anne’s last poem, “Last Lines,” with a note from Charlotte at the end: “These lines written, the desk was closed, the pen laid aside – for ever.” So tragic, the brevity of their lives.
  
  Even though this style of poetry is not my favorite, I loved spending more time with the Brontё sisters through their verse. Well worth trying.
• 
  Lauralai

  I love these women so much. This little collection is very well worth a read.
  
  Charlotte Brontë
  ————————
  The Letter 4/5
  Regret 3/5
  Presentiment 2/5
  The Teacher’s Monologue 2/5
  Passion 2/5
  Preference 4/5
  Parting 4/5
  Winter Stores 3/5
  On the Death of Emily Jane Brontë 3/5
  On the Death of Anne Brontë 4/5
  
  Favourite Poem: Parting
  
  Emily Brontë
  ——————
  Faith and Despondency 2/5
  Stars 2/5
  The Philosopher 2/5
  Remembrance 3/5
  A Death Scene 3/5
  Song 2/5
  Anticipation 3/5
  The Prisoner 4/5
  Hope 4/5
  A Day Dream 2/5
  To Imagination 4/5
  How Clear She Shines 2/5
  Sympathy 2/5
  Plead for Me 2/5
  Self-Interrogation 2/5
  Death 3/5
  Stanzas to —- 3/5
  Stanzas 4/5
  My Comforter 4/5
  The Old Stoic 4/5
  The Visionary 5/5
  The Night Wind 5/5
  No Coward Soul is Mine 2/5
  
  Favourite Poem: The Night Wind
  
  Anne Brontë
  —————-
  A Reminiscence 4/5
  The Arbour 2/5
  Home 3/5
  The Penitent 2/5
  If This Be All 4/5
  Memory 3/5
  Past Days 4/5
  Lines Composed in a Wood on a Windy Day 4/5
  Appeal 4/5
  The Captive Dove 4/5
  Self-Congratulation 4/5
  Fluctuations 4/5
  The Bluebell 4/5
  Last Lines 3/5
  
  Favourite Poem: The Captive Dove
• 
  Amalie

  Charlotte Bronte had said "The bringing of our little book was hard work. As was to be expected, neither we nor our poems were at all wanted." When I read the poetry I found it so puzzling why so. The Bells' poetry is absolutely marvelous. And for those of you who don't know, this collection is the occasion for the adoption of their pen names Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell.
  
  Anne’s poems (keeping up with the prose styles) compared with Emily's are composed more carefully and less dramatic like "A Reminiscence" while Emily's are more impassioned, evocating the sense of feelings and landscape like in "Remembrance". Out of all I find Emily’s poetry is the best. One stanza in "The Teacher’s Monologue" gives the homesickness Charlotte (and perhaps her sisters as well) felt for Haworth.
  
  "Sweet dreams of home my heart may fill
  That home where I am known and loved"
  
  The collection gives you a better insight into the Bronte sisters. Though they are mostly emotional and heartfelt with a sense of loneliness and solitude they are also sad and melancholy but not miserable in any way whatsoever. My favourite is Emily Bronte’s "The Caged Bird".
• 
  Sherien

  Reading these poems by the amazing Bronte sisters widens my knowledge about their character and life. Through what they express we can sense their feelings of loneliness, solitude, hopes, dreams, love for their family and home, and most heartbreakingly, their grieve and despair. Reading their poems has a bit of a different tone than reading their novels. Beautiful, emotional, and heartfelt yet never optimistic. Sad and sympathetic. Their poems give us a clearer view of how these three notable literary sisters’ lives were like. Out of the three Emily has the finest ability. Anne’s poems were also fabulous showing ability almost-like Emily. However, Charlotte’s two poems about the death of her two sisters are the ones that brought tears to my eyes.
  
  Achingly Beautiful! A must read for those who love the Bronte sisters!
  
  
• 
  Ayu Palar

  The Brontë Sisters are highly praised for their novels, however I just found out that they also composed great poems as well. When reading this, I was in this melancholy situation (thanks to the rain, hah!), so the lines that each of them wrote really grabbed my soul. I can’t mention which one of them is my favourite because all of them are great poets and did know how to scribble down their emotion.
  
  One thing in common is that how the sadness of parting paints their poems. Not surprising since through their lives, the Brontë sisters had to face many early and unexpected deaths. Charlotte even wrote two poems as her way to say goodbye to Emily and Anne who had to leave before her. What heartbreaking poems, showing how these sisters really loved and supported each other.
  
  The Teacher’s Monologue by Charlotte Brontë finely describes the feeling of a governess (most likely her own experience) trying to survive during the hard times. I can imagine Charlotte wrote this down in an empty room, only accompanied by the sound of silence. Parting is also a gem. It holds you up when you are about to part with someone that you love:
  
  There’s no use in weeping,
  Though we are condemned to part:
  There’s no such thing as keeping
  A remembrance in one’s heart.
  
  Such a strong remark from someone who had lost many of her beloved people!
  
  Like Charlotte, Anne and Emily also talked about death and separation in their poems. You can’t help thinking about how gloomy their lives were. However, these talented women also showed that no matter how hard the situation was, they stood strong. And even though Charlotte wrote this last note: These lines written, the desk was closed, the pen laid aside – forever, we know that their talents will be remembered and cherished forever.
  
• 
  Crissy

  Quintessential Bronte feelings in these poems. Emily is generally the strongest poet but Anne's poems were also heart-wrenchers!
  
  
• 
  Wayne McCoy

  'Best Poems of the Brontë Sisters' introduced me to poems written by the three literary sisters. It's a short collection but was enjoyable to read.
  
  The Brontë's famous for writing were among six siblings. They originally published the poems under the names of Currer, Acton and Ellis Bell, perhaps thinking the poems would sell better if buyers thought the authors were men. Perhaps it's fortuitous that the poems didn't sell well, because the Brontës moved on to writing novels. That's not to say the poems aren't good, but I think their prose is more enduring.
  
  The poems are very much of the century they lived in. There are odes to nature such as places in the woods or windy days. There are also some darker poems written about the loss of their siblings. There is joy here, but much sorrow and darkness too. The poems are not something I would have thought of as something the Brontës would do well, but I thoroughly enjoyed this collection.
  
  I received a review copy of this ebook from Dover Publications and NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you for allowing me to review this ebook.
• 
  Kris - My Novelesque Life

  BEST POEMS OF THE BRONTE SISTERS
  Written by Charlotte, Anne and Emily Bronte
  Edited by Candace Ward
  1899 (reissue January, 2016); 64 Pages
  Genre: poetry
  
  ★★★★★
  
  (I received an ARC from the NETGALLEY in exchange for an honest review.)
  
  I have read the Bronte sisters' poetry for a few years now - in collections and online - and have enjoyed it. Now that I have read some of the Brontes' novels I can see more of the individual style they had. The one thing they all have in common is that their poetry has little stories. Another collection living in my eReader.
  
  
• 
  Kattiah Claire

  I'm trying to get more into poetry and have a bunch of these over thrift editions from different poets. I'm going to try to understand better and see how these correlate to my world in preparation for uni classes where I will have to read poetry!
• 
  Ann

  An excellent collection of poetry by the Bronte sisters. Really enjoyed this one and I discovered a new favorite poem—“To Imagination” by Emily Bronte.
• 
  BAM the enigma

  I really didn't think these were very good. They are almost all in the same pentameter so it became quite repetitive quickly. I like variety.
• 
  Kayla

  3.5 ⭐️
  
  I definitely preferred Anne’s poems out of this compilation.
• 
  Joseph Spuckler

  The Best Poems of the Bronte Sisters published by Dover Publications is a collection of poetry from the three sisters best known for their prose. Although classics Jane Eyre, Wuthering Heights, and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall they do not complete the sister’s range of works.
  
  There is a similarity in style between the sisters and it holds to the form of 19th century English poetry. There are several poems that were written on the spur of the moment. Poems are written on a windy afternoon or from a place in the woods. There is, without a doubt, plenty of the romantic movement in their collective writing.
  
  Emily Bronte’s poems seem to take a darker tone than the other sisters, but it is Charlotte who writes the poems in eulogy for her sisters. There is a turn in Charlotte outlook as she seems drained and suffering loss in her later poems. This is a well-collected selection of poetry that demonstrates the best of 19th-century writing and, more importantly, the works of women in poetry. Ask most people, even those who took English literature in college, to name a 19th-century female poet and perhaps they may mention Mary Shelley but little mention of anyone else. The Bronte sisters, although famous for their novels, should have their fair share fame for their poetry.
  
  This is a great collection for those interested in poetry. English 19th-century poetry is almost the ideal of poetry in most people’s minds. This collection will introduce readers to a great period of literature and great women poets.
  
• 
  rinabeana

  Break my heart in a million pieces! Not only could they write fantastic novels, but the Brontës could write poetry! I have to agree with the critics that I like Emily's poems the best. They are extremely well written and evoke such emotions. From the perspective of someone familiar with the lives of the Brontës, however, Charlotte's two poems (written after Emily died and after Anne died) about the loss of her sisters nearly killed me. Also, Anne's Last Lines (written shortly after Emily died and shortly before she died) were gut-wrenching. I'm a sucker for sad poems, anyway. There are definitely worth reading!
• 
  Jeanine

  This is a beautiful collection of poems, written by Charlotte, Emily & Anne Bronte. They are wonderful poems, intensely emotional. I have never been much of a fan, when it came to poetry, in general. However, since I loved the novels written by each of the Bronte sisters, I decided to read their poems as well. I was certainly not disappointed, but pleasantly surprised. I have read this book several times over already. I had taken this book out of the public library, but I would like to buy a copy for myself. I do plan to read it again, in the future. :)
• 
  Hila

  *3,5
  poetry: emily>anne>charlotte
  
  “(...)
  No; while the sun shone kindly o’er us,
  And flowers bloomed round our feet, —
  While many a bud of joy before us
  Unclosed its petals sweet, —
  
  An unseen work within was plying;
  Like honey-seeking bee,
  From flower to flower, unwearied, flying,
  Laboured one faculty, —
  (...)”
  
  p. 14, “Winter stores”, Charlotte Brontë
  
  
  “(...)
  Blow, west-wind, by the lonely mound,
  And murmur, summer-streams—
  There is no need of other sound
  To soothe my lady's dreams.”
  
  p. 25, “Song”, Emily Brontë
  
  “There should be no despair for you
  While nightly stars are burning;
  While evening pours its silent dew,
  And sunshine gilds the morning.
  There should be no despair—though tears
  May flow down like a river:
  Are not the best beloved of years
  Around your heart for ever?
  
  They weep, you weep, it must be so;
  Winds sigh as you are sighing,
  And winter sheds its grief in snow
  Where Autumn’s leaves are lying:
  Yet, these revive, and from their fate
  Your fate cannot be parted:
  Then, journey on, if not elate,
  Still, never broken-hearted.”
  
  p. 34, “Sympathy”, Emily Brontë
  
  
  “(...)
  Oh, list! 'tis summer's very breath
  That gently shakes the rustling trees—
  But look! the snow is on the ground—
  How can I think of scenes like these?
  
  'Tis but the frost that clears the air,
  And gives the sky that lovely blue;
  They're smiling in a winter's sun,
  Those evergreens of sombre hue.
  
  And winter's chill is on my heart—
  How can I dream of future bliss?
  How can my spirit soar away,
  Confined by such a chain as this?”
  
  
  p.46, “The Arbour”, Anne Brontë
  
  
  Personal faves:
  Charlotte: “Winter Stores”
  Emily: “Stars” (!!!), “Remembrance”, “Song”, “Hope”, “Sympathy”, “Stanzas”
  Anne: “The Arbour”, “Lines Composed in a Wood on a Windy Day”
  
  
• 
  Nancy Bandusky

  Wonderful collection of poems by Charlotte, Emily and Anne. While they are more famous for their novels, fans of their work will enjoy adding this small volume to their collection.
  My favorites were:
  
  Charlotte -
  Preference
  Winter Stores
  On the Death of Anne Bronte
  
  Emily -
  Hope
  Plead for Me
  Self-Interrogation
  The Old Stoic
  No Coward Soul is Mine
  
  Anne -
  The Penitent
  If This Be All *(My favorite of the collection.)
  Past Days
  Appeal
• 
  Melissa

  This is an interesting collection of poetry for anyone who is fan of the Bronte sisters. These are very straightforward gothic poems, often ranging on topics like love and death. There are also some evocations of the famous moor landscape on which they lived.
• 
  Christa

  While I am a fan of the Bronte sisters, this was my first time to read much poetry by them. I really enjoyed this collection and was glad to find something new to me to read by them.
• 
  Carolyn

  Melodramatic and suffering from a lack of subtlety or depth. More interesting from a historical/biographical perspective than as poetry, per se.
• 
  Aline

  Emily Bronte is a particularly great poet, with extremely abstract and otherworldly pieces that move beyond this realm in a beautiful, tragic and fascinating way..
• 
  A

  One can never go wrong with the Brontë sisters. They’re all such exquisite writers in their own right.
• 
  Tara Callahan

  It was a quick little book of poems by three different and unique sisters who helped change the world of literature.
• 
  Andréa

  Note: I received a digital review copy of this book from the publisher through NetGalley.
• 
  ava joyce

  these girls have never known peace
• 
  Kimberly

  This collection is not only for fans of the Bronte Sisters and classic rhyming poetry but also for readers that crave heartbreaking gothic angst. I had never been exposed to these poems and, I must admit, I did not read this collection straight through but spent a little time with it each day. Let yourself experience the meaning and mull the poems over.
  
  These poems are gorgeous and full of the torment that I associate with the Brontes. I always prefer Bronte books on rainy or snowy days with a coffee close by—they just are so talented at creating an atmosphere that draws me in.
  
  Full disclosure: Jane Eyre is one of my all time favorites novels, I read it yearly due to the swoon-worthy Mr. Rochester, but Wuthering Heights makes me cringe so I’m not fully biased.
  
  Give the Bronte sisters a try. If you love Gothic British literature, they are a must. If you love their novels, the poems are waiting for you.
  
  Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for my copy.