Mementos by Charlotte Bronte

[joanne2735]

Help! Does anyone know anything about the context of this poem? I assumed it was talking about her own mother (most of Charlotte's poems are autobiographical), but then the father/husband figure is described as 'Absorbed in vice', and commits suicide at the end of the poem (clearly not Patrick Bronte). Is this then purely a fictional poem, or does anyone know of any links to incidents in Charlotte's personal life?
Help gratefully received!

[JBI]

Help! Does anyone know anything about the context of this poem? I assumed it was talking about her own mother (most of Charlotte's poems are autobiographical), but then the father/husband figure is described as 'Absorbed in vice', and commits suicide at the end of the poem (clearly not Patrick Bronte). Is this then purely a fictional poem, or does anyone know of any links to incidents in Charlotte's personal life?
Help gratefully received!

Try her brother. But even then, it's hard to pin anything down - her poems are sort of allusive and I don't have a copy before me.

[mona amon]

I do not know much about Charlotte Bronte's poems, and Wow, this one is so long I was not able to finish reading, but not all (or even most) of her poems are autobiographical. A lot of her poems are about fictional characters living in the imaginary kingdom of Angria which she and her brother Branwell made up in childhood. This one sounds like an Angrian poem, written when she was a young woman teaching at Roe Head. During this period the tediousness of her daily life caused her to escape back again into the imaginary world, writing chronicles and poems about the Angrians in her free time.

[joanne2735]

Ah yes of course; I forgot to consider the whole paracosmo thing! That makes more sense, thank you.