"The Night Wind" by Emily Bronte

{Author Bio}
Emily was an English novelist and poet, best remembered for her only novel, Wuthering Heights, now considered a classic of English literature. Emily was the third eldest of the four surviving Brontë siblings, between the youngest Anne and her brother Branwell. She wrote under the pen name Ellis Bell.

In summer's mellow midnight,
A cloudless moon shone through
Our open parlour window,
And rose-trees wet with dew.

I sat in silent musing;
The soft wind waved my hair;
It told me heaven was glorious,
And sleeping earth was fair.

I needed not its breathing
To bring such thoughts to me;
But still it whispered lowly,
How dark the woods will be!

"The thick leaves in my murmur
Are rustling like a dream,
And all their myriad voices
Instinct with spirit seem."

I said, "Go, gentle singer,
Thy wooing voice is kind:
But do not think its music
Has power to reach my mind.

"Play with the scented flower,
The young tree's supple bough,
And leave my human feelings
In their own course to flow."

The wanderer would not heed me;
Its kiss grew warmer still.
"O come!" it sighed so sweetly;
"I'll win thee 'gainst thy will.

"Were we not friends from childhood?
Have I not loved thee long?
As long as thou, the solemn night,
Whose silence wakes my song.

"And when thy heart is resting
Beneath the church-aisle stone,
I shall have time for mourning,
And THOU for being alone."

The time is summer and the moon is out so it it night time. The sky is cloudless and you can almost feel that summer heat and humidity but also the coolness of a summer night. "In Summer's mellow midnight, a cloudless moon shone through"-The author's description of the moon is very gentle and soft so the speaker is most likely in a place of contentment. She is almost in a dreamlike environment, alluding to the fact that it is nighttime. Although there is only one person in this poem, the night wind is acting like a second speaker telling her that "Heaven was glorious, And sleeping Earth was fair." She is alone, staring off into the night. The night wind represents her imagination and we, as the readers, are getting a glimpse of her dreams and inner conflicts. As the speaker sits by her window, her gaze is fixed on the night (a reference to her inner desires and fantasies) and she is falling into a trance — she is daydreaming – and she becomes part of the natural struggle between fantasy and reality. The speaker knows that is foolish to have imaginations. She wants to the Night Wind (her imagination) to leave because she wants to resist the temptations her imagination. She tells her imagination to go away and play with the scented flowers and the trees ("And leave my human feelings")