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-   -   Please explain this Charlotte Bronte poem (https://www.askmehelpdesk.com/showthread.php?t=660903)

  • May 16, 2012, 04:04 PM
    break01213
    Please explain this Charlotte Bronte poem
    Long ago I wished to leave
    "The house where I was born;"
    Long ago I used to grieve,
    My home seemed so forlorn.
    In other years, its silent rooms
    Were filled with haunting fears;
    Now, their very memory comes
    O'ercharged with tender tears.

    Life and marriage I have known.
    Things once deemed so bright;
    Now, how utterly is flown
    Every ray of light!
    'Mid the unknown sea, of life
    I no blest isle have found;
    At last, through all its wild wave's strife,
    My bark is homeward bound.

    Farewell, dark and rolling deep!
    Farewell, foreign shore!
    Open, in unclouded sweep,
    Thou glorious realm before!
    Yet, though I had safely pass'd
    That weary, vexed main,
    One loved voice, through surge and blast
    Could call me back again.

    Though the soul's bright morning rose
    O'er Paradise for me,
    William! Even from Heaven's repose
    I'd turn, invoked by thee!
    Storm nor surge should e'er arrest
    My soul, exalting then:
    All my heaven was once thy breast,
    Would it were mine again
  • May 16, 2012, 04:10 PM
    break01213
    BTW The poem is called Regret
  • May 16, 2012, 04:17 PM
    Wondergirl
    From poetryfoundation.org --

    Four of her poems--"The Wife's Will," "The Wood," "Regret," and "Apostasy"--together constitute a single story of an English wife who chooses to accompany her husband into political exile in France, where she affirms at the end of her life a loyalty to her native faith, the religion of romantic love:

    'Tis my religion thus to love,
    My creed thus fixed to be;
    Not Death shall shake, nor Priestcraft break
    My rock-like constancy!

    Presented through extended monologues, this story effectively develops the character of the speaker through four dramatically realized situations in which she addresses an implied audience--William in the first three poems, a French-Catholic priest in the last. These poems thus resemble both the long narrative poem that was to become popular in Victorian England.
    ***********************
    Are you supposed to explicate the poem line by line?
  • May 16, 2012, 05:48 PM
    break01213
    Yes
  • May 16, 2012, 06:05 PM
    Wondergirl
    Okay, so what is the speaker (the English wife who goes into political exile and into another country with her husband) saying here?

    Long ago I wished to leave
    "The house where I was born;"
    Long ago I used to grieve,
    My home seemed so forlorn.
    In other years, its silent rooms
    Were filled with haunting fears;
    Now, their very memory comes
    Overcharged with tender tears.
  • May 16, 2012, 06:23 PM
    break01213
    Oh okay, thank you
  • May 16, 2012, 06:26 PM
    Wondergirl
    We're not finished. We have to take apart this poem!!
  • May 16, 2012, 06:32 PM
    break01213
    Ya, okay
  • May 16, 2012, 06:34 PM
    Wondergirl
    Tell me what the first verse means, what the English wife is thinking.
  • May 16, 2012, 06:49 PM
    break01213
    She is sad and she wants to leave her house. And she is thinking of bad memories that had happened in there.
  • May 16, 2012, 06:51 PM
    Wondergirl
    Nope, Try again. Read the first two lines carefully.
  • May 16, 2012, 07:01 PM
    break01213
    She has wished to leave her house
  • May 16, 2012, 07:07 PM
    Wondergirl
    How old was she when she wished that?
  • May 16, 2012, 07:10 PM
    break01213
    I don't know
  • May 16, 2012, 07:16 PM
    Wondergirl
    Long ago I wished to leave
    "The house where I was born;"
    Long ago I used to grieve,
    My home seemed so forlorn.


    When I was a girl and still lived at home, the grass was greener on the other side of the fence. Home seemed so boring and even so sad, so boring, so depressing. I couldn't wait to grow up and get away from home.
  • May 16, 2012, 07:19 PM
    Wondergirl
    In other years, its silent rooms
    Were filled with haunting fears;
    Now, their very memory comes
    O'ercharged with tender tears.


    As I got older, things got worse and my feelings against being at home got stronger. And now when I remember home and being young and innocent, I feel like crying because I didn't appreciate it.
  • May 16, 2012, 07:20 PM
    Wondergirl
    Then what happened?

    Life and marriage I have known.
    Things once deemed so bright;
    Now, how utterly is flown
    Every ray of light!
  • May 16, 2012, 07:39 PM
    break01213
    Her life and marriage used to be brighter than it is now
  • May 16, 2012, 07:42 PM
    Wondergirl
    Yes, she finally grew up, left home, got married, and things were good for a while, but time went by, and the happiness disappeared for various reasons.
  • May 16, 2012, 07:44 PM
    Wondergirl
    'Mid the unknown sea of life
    I no blest isle have found;
    At last, through all its wild wave's strife,
    My bark is homeward bound.


    Then what thoughts does she have? What does the second line mean? What's a "bark"?

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