Classic and Contemporary Poetry
WRITTEN ON THE DUNGEON WALL, by EMILY JANE BRONTE Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: I know that tonight the wind is sighing Alternate Author Name(s): Bell, Ellis Subject(s): Prisons & Prisoners; Convicts | ||||||||
I know that tonight the wind is sighing, The soft August wind, over forest and moor; While I in a grave-like chill am lying On the damp black flags of my dungeon-floor. I know that the Harvest Moon is shining: She neither will wax nor wane for me; Yet I weary, weary with vain repining, One gleam of her heaven-bright face to see! For this constant darkness is wasting the gladness, Fast wasting the gladness of life away: It gathers up thoughts akin to madness That never would cloud the world of day. I chide with my soul-I bid it cherish The feelings it lived on when I was free, But shrinking it murmurs, "Let Memory perish,* Forget, for thy friends have forgotten thee!"* Alas, I did think that they were weeping Such tears as I weep-it is not so! Their careless young eyes are closed in sleeping; Their brows are unshadowed, undimmed by woe. Might I go to their beds, I'd rouse that slumber; My spirit should startle their rest, and tell How, hour after hour, I wakefully number Deep buried from light in my lonely cell! Yet, let them dream on, though dreary dreaming Would haunt my pillow if they were here, And I were laid warmly under the gleaming Of that guardian moon and her comrade star. Better that I, my own fate mourning, Should pine alone in the prison-gloom,* Than waken free on the summer morning And feel they were suffering this awful doom | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SECULAR GAMES by RICHARD HOWARD WHAT DID YOU SEE? by FANNY HOWE JULIA TUTWILER STATE PRISON FOR WOMEN by ANDREW HUDGINS BOTHWELL: PART 4 by WILLIAM EDMONSTOUNE AYTOUN BOTHWELL: PART 4 by WILLIAM EDMONSTOUNE AYTOUN WORK IN PROGRESS by CHARLES MARTIN THE SUBCULTURE OF THE WRONGLY ACCUSED by THYLIAS MOSS A DAY DREAM by EMILY JANE BRONTE |
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