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Falling-Away
04-03-2008, 05:31 PM
Hey, I just read the poem 'Remembrance' by Emily Bronte and I was wondering if it was based on things that had happened to her.

It seems to be about her love who died, but I can't find any evidence that she was in love with a man to that extent.
I then read on this website that she was very close to her brother and then I thought perhaps the poem could be about his death.

Any thoughts?

It's a beautiful poem :D

Albion
04-25-2010, 10:31 AM
"Remembrance" was written in the mid 1840s whereas Branwell died in 1848. She died very soon after him allegedly from a chill caught at his funeral. The poem arose almost certainly not from a love interest of hers. Although she lived to an age when she could have found love, she died at age 30 without any love interest being recorded. This is remarkable for somebody with her insights so eloquently expressed in Wuthering Heights and several other poems. (In my opinion, she was the most poetic of a remarkably talented family.)
"Remembrance" refers to a death that occurred 15 years previously but the suggestion that it relates to her mother is also unfounded. Her mother died in 1821 and, in any case, "Remembrance" is much more romantic than filial. Most poets adopt a persona in order to convey their story and this is but one example of her projecting her imagination.