Wednesday 13 December 2006

I am the only being whose doom

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

In secret pleasure – secret tears
This changeful life has slipped away
As friendless after eighteen years
As lone as on my natal day

There have been times I cannot hide
There have been times when this was drear
When my sad soul forgot its pride
And longed for one to love me here

But those were in the early glow
Of feelings not subdued by care
And they have died so long ago
I hardly now believe they were

First melted off the hope of youth
Then Fancy’s rainbow fast withdrew
And then experience told me truth
In mortal bosoms never grew

‘Twas grief enough to think mankind
All hollow servile insincere –
But worse to trust to my own mind
And find the same corruption there

Emily Jane Brontë

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When a poem has affected one’s life like this had on me, it is impossible to take it apart and analyse it. It has become a part of my very existence and can only be understood as a whole. Although it is no Nobel material, it spoke to me in my most desperate times. Now, let it speak to you too.

Anon.

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