The Complete Poems Quotes

“Love is like the wild rose-briar; Friendship like the holly-tree. The holly is dark when the rose-briar blooms, but which will bloom most constantly?”
― Emily Brontë, The Complete Poems

“Riches I hold in light esteem,
And love I laugh to scorn,
And lust of fame was but a dream
That vanished with the morn.

And if I pray, the only prayer
That moves my lips for me
Is, 'Leave the heart that now I bear,
And give me liberty!'

Yes, as my swift days near their goal,
'Tis all that I implore -
In life and death, a chainless soul,
With courage to endure.”
― Emily Bronte, The Complete Poems

“The old church tower and garden wall
Are black with autumn rain
And dreary winds foreboding call
The darkness down again”
― Emily Brontë, The Complete Poems

“Hope Was but a timid friend;
She sat without the grated den,
Watching how my fate would tend,
Even as selfish-hearted men.

She was cruel in her fear;
Through the bars one dreary day,
I looked out to see her there,
And she turned her face away!

Like a false guard, false watch keeping,
Still, in strife, she whispered peace;
She would sing while I was weeping;
If I listened, she would cease.

False she was, and unrelenting;
When my last joys strewed the ground,
Even Sorrow saw, repenting,
Those sad relics scattered round;

Hope, whose whisper would have given
Balm to all my frenzied pain,
Stretched her wings, and soared to heaven,
Went, and ne'er returned again!”
― Emily Brontë, The Complete Poems

“What have those lonely mountains worth revealing?
More glory and more grief than I can tell:”
― Emily Brontë, The Complete Poems

“But the hearts that once adored me
Have long forgot their vow
And the friends that mustered round me
Have all forsaken now

‘Twas in a dream revealed to me
But not a dreamt of sleep
A dream of watchful agony
Of grief that would not weep

Now do not harshly turn away”
― Emily Brontë, The Complete Poems

“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 since 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 Brontë, The Complete Poems

“Oh! dreadful is the check—intense the agony—
When the ear begins to hear, and the eye begins to see;
When the pulse begins to throb, the brain to think again;
The soul to feel the flesh, and the flesh to feel the chain.”
― Emily Brontë, The Complete Poems

“How clear she shines ! How quietly
I lie beneath her guardian light;
While heaven and earth are whispering me,
" To morrow, wake, but, dream to-night."
Yes, Fancy, come, my Fairy love !
These throbbing temples softly kiss;
And bend my lonely couch above
And bring me rest, and bring me bliss.

The world is going; dark world, adieu !
Grim world, conceal thee till the day;
The heart, thou canst not all subdue,
Must still resist, if thou delay !

Thy love I will not, will not share;
Thy hatred only wakes a smile;
Thy griefs may wound–thy wrongs may tear,
But, oh, thy lies shall ne'er beguile !
While gazing on the stars that glow
Above me, in that stormless sea,
I long to hope that all the woe
Creation knows, is held in thee !

And, this shall be my dream to-night;
I'll think the heaven of glorious spheres

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Is rolling on its course of light
In endless bliss, through endless years;
I'll think, there's not one world above,
Far as these straining eyes can see,
Where Wisdom ever laughed at Love,
Or Virtue crouched to Infamy;

Where, writhing 'neath the strokes of Fate,
The mangled wretch was forced to smile;
To match his patience 'gainst her hate,
His heart rebellious all the while.
Where Pleasure still will lead to wrong,
And helpless Reason warn in vain;
And Truth is weak, and Treachery strong;
And Joy the surest path to Pain;
And Peace, the lethargy of Grief;
And Hope, a phantom of the soul;
And Life, a labour, void and brief;
And Death, the despot of the whole !”
― Emily Brontë, The Complete Poems

“He comes with western winds, with evening's
wandering airs,
With that clear dusk of heaven that brings the
thickest stars.
Winds take a pensive tone, and stars a tender fire,
And visions rise, and change, that kill me with
desire.”
― Emily Brontë, The Complete Poems

“Oh, stars, and dreams, and gentle night;
Oh, night and stars, return!
And hide me from the hostile light
That does not warm, but burn
- Stars”
― Emily Brontë, The Complete Poems

“Oh, for the time when I shall sleep ⁠without identity.
and never care how rain may steep,
⁠or snow may cover me –”
― Emily Brontë, The Complete Poems

“His land may burst the galling chain
His people may be free again
For them a thousand hopes remain
But hope is dead for him
Soft falls the moonlight on the sea
Whose wild waves play at liberty
And Gondal’s wind sings solemnly
Its [native] midnight hymn

Around his prison walls it sings
His heart is stirred through all its string
Because that sound remembrance brings
Of scenes that once have been

His soul has left the storm below
And reached a realm of sunless snow
The region of [unchanging] woe
Made voiceless by despair”
― Emily Brontë, The Complete Poems

“Then did I check the tears of useless passion-
Weaned my young soul from yearning after thine;
Sternly denied its burning wish to hasten
Down to that tomb already more than mine.

And, even yet, I dare not let it languish,
Dare not indulge in memory's rapturous pain;
Once drinking deep of that divinest anguish,
How could I seek the empty world again?”
― Emily Brontë, The Complete Poems

“Thy mind is ever moving
In regions dark to thee;
Recall its useless roving—
Come back and dwell with me.”
― Emily Brontë, The Complete Poems

“How spring can bring thee glory, yet, And summer win thee to forget”
― Emily Brontë, The Complete Poems of Emily Bronte [with Biographical Introduction]

“Why dost thou hold the treasure fast, Of youth's delight, when youth is past, And thou art near thy prime?”
― Emily Brontë, The Complete Poems of Emily Bronte [with Biographical Introduction]

“There cast my anchor of desire Deep in unknown eternity; Nor ever let my spirit tire, With looking for what is to be!”
― Emily Brontë, The Complete Poems of Emily Bronte [with Biographical Introduction]

“Hope soothes me in the griefs I know; She lulls my pain for others' woe, And makes me strong to undergo What I am born to bear.”
― Emily Brontë, The Complete Poems of Emily Bronte [with Biographical Introduction]

“O thy sweet tongue must plead for me”
― Emily Brontë, The Complete Poems

“Dulce Amor de juventud, perdóname si te olvido mientras la marea del mundo me arrastra consigo; otros deseos y otras esperanzas me asedian, esperanzas que pueden ensombrecerte mas no hacerte daño. Ninguna nueva luz ha iluminado mi cielo, ninguna mañana ha vuelto a brillar para mí; toda la dicha de mi vida se me entregó con tu vida, toda la dicha de mi vida está enterrada en la tumba contigo.”
― Emily Brontë, Poesía completa

“It was a little budding rose,
Round like a fairy globe,
And shyly did its leaves unclose
Hid in their mossy robe,
But sweet was the slight and spicy smell
It breathed from its heart invisible.”
― Emily Brontë, The Complete Poems

“O Stars and Dreams and Gentle Night;
O Night and Stars return!
And hide me from the hostile light
That does not warm, but burn”
― Emily Brontë, The Complete Poems

“To the enduring seas - ;
There cast my anchor of desire
Deep in unknown eternity;
Nor ever let my spirit tire,
With looking for what is to be!

It is hope's spell that glorifies,
Like youth, to my maturer eyes,
All Nature's million mysteries,
The fearful and the fair -
Hope soothes me in the griefs I know;
She lulls my pain for others' woe,
And makes me strong to undergo
What I am born to bear.

Glad comforter! will I not brave,
Unawed, the darkness of the grave?
Nay, smile to hear Death's billows rave -
Sustained, my guide, by thee?
The more unjust seems present fate,
The more my spirit swells elate,
Strong, in thy strength, to anticipate
Rewarding destiny !”
― Emily Brontë, The Complete Poems

“Strike it down, that other boughs may flourish Where that perished sapling used to be;
Thus, at least, its mouldering corpse will nourish That from which it sprung - Eternity.”
― Emily Brontë, The Complete Poems

“Fall, leaves, fall; die, flowers, away;
Lengthen night and shorten day;
Every leaf speaks bliss to me
Fluttering from the autumn tree.

I shall smile when wreaths of snow
Blossom where the rose should grow;
I shall sing when night's decay
Ushers in a drearier day.”
― Emily Brontë, The Complete Poems

“So foes pursue, and cold allies
Mistrust me, every one:
Let me be false in others' eyes,
If faithful in my own.”
― Emily Brontë, The Complete Poems