Lines (Emily Brontë Poem) - Critical Appreciation

Critical Appreciation

The poem begins prominently with 'I die', immediately setting the tone for the poem which describes Emily's feelings concerning death. Emily gives the impression of indifference to death. Death will free her from 'earthly cares' and 'distress'. It is possible to interpret this attitude as death as relief from the suffering she has endured while mourning the losses in her family. As a teenager, it seems strange for Emily to be writing of her own death; however the presence of death in her life would have been inescapable. Using metaphor, she describes a ‘sea of gloom’ over which she passes to be ‘anchored’. This appears to be her interpretation of life as uncertain and relentless. She sees security in death which will allow her to ‘rest’ and remain ‘safe’ from the torment of ‘tears’ and ‘mourning’. It is by now clear, at the end of the second stanza, that death itself is a desirable escape from the repercussions it brings into life.

Emily continues with the metaphor of life as the ‘Ocean’, using adjectives such as ‘dark’ and ‘drear’ to describe it negatively. It becomes apparent that death is a safe haven for Emily. Death is represented by the ‘shore’, where the troubles of ‘storms’ and ‘fears’ cannot reach. The final stanza is more positive and adopts a different perspective on life and death. Displaying her religious beliefs, she pitches the insignificant length of time against the afterlife which will last for ‘eternity’. Life is ‘nothing to eternity’, especially when the afterlife can unite Emily with her lost family members. Emily seeks to prove the greatness of such a place where ‘ages never die’. With enjambment and without punctuation, Emily creates the effect that life is transient, death is close and that the pains and ‘fears’ of living will not be endured for long.