Cold In The Earth By Emily Bronte Analysis

How does Emily Bronte convey coping with loss in “Cold in The Earth?”

In “Cold in The Earth”, Emily Bronte seeks to explore the dramatic psychological journey of losing a loved one. Bronte emphasises the speakers’ inner struggle and pain which she attempts to overcome throughout the poem as well as demonstrating the stages required to reconcile herself to the truth. Bronte also analyses the dualistic thoughts whereby the speaker debates whether struggling with the loss is better than moving on with her life. One way by which Bronte conveys coping with loss is by the speaker clinging on to the past and finding it increasingly difficult to let go. In the opening three paragraphs, the reader gains an insight into the speakers’ emotions and
The ‘fern-leaves cover’ and ‘deep snow’ both help reiterate how absent they are from each other. Bronte used apostrophe to show how the speaker still feels connected to the lover by being addressed as ‘My Only Love’ and speaking to a dead person. The speaker also stresses how it is hard to break away from the ‘all-wearing wave’ because one cannot escape the time, they wear it. The speaker attempts to get over the loss, when she understands that ‘when alone’ she is still thinking about him. The creation of a fantasy world ‘on Angoras Shore’ demonstrates that the speaker cannot stop dwelling on her lover and will try to be with him, even If it is just ‘over the mountains’ in a fantasy world. By ‘resting her wings’ the speaker begins to face the reality of the grave, but by the stanza finishing with a rhetorical question, the reader can vision the inner emotional struggle which the speaker is experiencing as a consequence of standing up to the reality. The dualistic
One gets a sense of the turning point in her emotions she wants her lover to ‘forgive if I forget thee’ which demonstrates how it is natural for her to want to move on. The opening line’s soft fricatives shows the remorse and guilt that the speaker will go through, but the softness of it shows that she does not want it to harm her lover. The speaker reminisces about the ‘Sweet Love of Youth’ from 15 years ago and the sad reality that this will never happen again. The fact that she can comprehend this is displayed when her ‘sterner desires’ for the future are described as ‘dark hopes’ which is an oxymoron. The use of an oxymoron shows the backwards nature of moving on and subconsciously, she knows that her hopes for the future are dark and empty. The internal rhyme of thee and me suggests that there is still a connection between a youthful self and future one, even if weak. Stanza five depicts her final tribute to him, strangely in the middle of the poem. The first line shows how ‘no other sun’ which is a metaphor for man, ‘has lightened up my heaven’ which further demonstrates how since his death, she has not love anyone else which proves her faithfulness. She begins to realise that life will go ahead, however, she has to reconsider new hopes. Also, unlike the poems trochaic iambic pentameter, this stanza has a