Nature

And like myself lone, wholly lone

by Emily Brontë 1818–1848

From Complete Poems (1910)

Nature

And like myself lone, wholly lone,
It sees the day's long sunshine glow;
And like myself it makes its moan
In unexhausted woe.

Give we the hills our equal prayer,
Earth's breezy hills and heaven's blue sea;
I ask for nothing further here
But my own heart and liberty.

Ah! could my hand unlock its chain,
How gladly would I with it soar;
And ne'er regret and ne'er complain
To see its shining eyes no more.

But let me think, that if to-day
It pines in cold captivity,
To-morrow both shall soar away,
Eternally, entirely free.

Methinks this heart should rest awhile,
So stilly round the evening falls;
The veiled sun shone no parting smile,
Nor mirth, nor music wakes my halls.

I have sat lonely all the day,
Watching the drizzly mist descend,
And first conceal the hills in grey,
And then along the valleys wend.

And I have sat and watched the trees,
And the sad flowers, how drear they blew;
Those flowers were formed to feel the breeze
Wave their light heads in summer's glow.

Yet their lives passed in gloomy woe,
And hopeless comes its dark decline,
And I lament because I know
That cold departure pictures mine.

MLA

Brontë, Emily. “And like myself lone, wholly lone.” Poetry Codex, poetrycodex.com/poem/bronte/118/.

Chicago

Brontë, Emily. “And like myself lone, wholly lone.” Poetry Codex. https://poetrycodex.com/poem/bronte/118/.

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