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A review by lizziestudieshistory
Emily Bronte: Poems by Emily Brontë
3.0
This is an excellent collection with, I believe, most of Emily Bronte's poetry included by Washington as the editor*. I have a love hate relationship with poetry, every now and again I find a poem I adore for it's beauty and power, but nine times out of ten I find poetry dull, probably because I've been unable to perfect the art of finding the correct rhythm to read poetry. When someone reads it to me, properly, I can truly appreciate the artistry that goes into a brilliant poem, but on my own they end up being bland and remind me far too much of English lessons at school...
Saying this, there are a few poems in here that took my breath away with how much feeling they displayed! Some of the more gritty and even bleak poems reminded me of the sheer weight of emotion and power that fills the pages of Wuthering Heights! I absolutely adored these and have marked them to go back and read them time and time again. It's astounding how much some of these poems are evocative of Wuthering Heights to me (particularly when I'd much rather read a novel...) They're full of passion, emotion, and an untameable wildness that I cannot help but adore.
However, most of the time I really couldn't care less, and unfortunately the vast majority of the poems in here came under that category... For example, I'm sorry Emily but personally I don't care enough about bluebells to enjoy those particular poems... Even if the bluebells are meant to symbolise something else (and I'm not good enough with poetry, nor have I spent enough time with these poems to work out whether they are or not) I'm just not a fan.
Bronte is a magnificent poet and when she captures an emotion it's so vibrant and visceral that I can feel it through a medium I generally don't like. Her poetry is well worth reading and I would highly recommend giving them a go if you've read and loved Wuthering Heights!
*I should note I haven't read every poem in this collection, I have an unfortunate habit of skipping poems if the first verse doesn't work for me...
Saying this, there are a few poems in here that took my breath away with how much feeling they displayed! Some of the more gritty and even bleak poems reminded me of the sheer weight of emotion and power that fills the pages of Wuthering Heights! I absolutely adored these and have marked them to go back and read them time and time again. It's astounding how much some of these poems are evocative of Wuthering Heights to me (particularly when I'd much rather read a novel...) They're full of passion, emotion, and an untameable wildness that I cannot help but adore.
However, most of the time I really couldn't care less, and unfortunately the vast majority of the poems in here came under that category... For example, I'm sorry Emily but personally I don't care enough about bluebells to enjoy those particular poems... Even if the bluebells are meant to symbolise something else (and I'm not good enough with poetry, nor have I spent enough time with these poems to work out whether they are or not) I'm just not a fan.
Bronte is a magnificent poet and when she captures an emotion it's so vibrant and visceral that I can feel it through a medium I generally don't like. Her poetry is well worth reading and I would highly recommend giving them a go if you've read and loved Wuthering Heights!
*I should note I haven't read every poem in this collection, I have an unfortunate habit of skipping poems if the first verse doesn't work for me...