Anticipation
How beautiful the earth is still,
To thee – how full of happiness!
How little fraught with real ill,
Or unreal phantoms of distress!
How spring can bring thee glory, yet,
And summer win thee to forget
December’s sullen time!
Why dost thou hold the treasure fast,
Of youth’s delight, when youth is past,
And thou art near thy prime?
When those who were thy own compeers,
Equals in fortune and in years,
Have seen their morning melt in tears,
To clouded, smileless day;
Blest, had they died untried and young,
Before their hearts went wandering wrong,
Poor slaves, subdued by passions strong,
A weak and helpless prey!
” Because, I hoped while they enjoyed,
And, by fulfilment, hope destroyed;
As children hope, with trustful breast,
I waited bliss – and cherished rest.
A thoughtful spirit taught me, soon,
That we must long till life be done;
That every phase of earthly joy
Must always fade, and always cloy:
This I foresaw – and would not chase
The fleeting treacheries;
But, with firm foot and tranquil face,
Held backward from that tempting race,
Gazed o’er the sands the waves efface,
To the enduring seas – ;
There cast my anchor of desire
Deep in unknown eternity;
Nor ever let my spirit tire,
With looking for what is to be!
It is hope’s spell that glorifies,
Like youth, to my maturer eyes,
All Nature’s million mysteries,
The fearful and the fair –
Hope soothes me in the griefs I know;
She lulls my pain for others’ woe,
And makes me strong to undergo
What I am born to bear.
Glad comforter! will I not brave,
Unawed, the darkness of the grave?
Nay, smile to hear Death’s billows rave –
Sustained, my guide, by thee?
The more unjust seems present fate,
The more my spirit swells elate,
Strong, in thy strength, to anticipate
Rewarding destiny !”
Emily Jane Brontë
Published in the 1846 collection Poems By Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell under Emily’s nom de plume ‘Ellis Bell’.
The English novelist Emily Brontë (1818-1848) wrote only one novel, “Wuthering Heights.” A unique achievement in its time, this work dramatizes a vision of life controlled by elemental forces which transcend conventional categories of good and evil.
Joe
The Closet Professor 
January 15th, 2013 at 8:12 am
Perfect poem and picture for a dreary, winter Tuesday morning! 🙂
January 15th, 2013 at 8:16 pm
This one was a little tough for me to get through. But thanks, I like a mental challenge.Peace <3Jay
January 15th, 2013 at 9:53 pm
The photograph used here is amazingly relevant to the written verse…but hardly one that the writer would have envisioned. If this same photograph was used in connection with the poem in a text book, I am sure it would be one of the most read poems in the book! Anticipation!!???? Certainly so, on the part of the one photographed, and on the part of the unseen person in front of him as well.Again, you present new insight into unexplored places~~~
January 16th, 2013 at 12:00 am
Haha, I was expecting this to be about ketchup.
January 17th, 2013 at 3:37 pm
gives you that warm fuzzy feeling.