Poem Analysis: "Spellbound" by Emily Bronte

Spellbound

Emily Brontë, 1818 - 1848

The night is darkening round me,

The wild winds coldly blow;

But a tyrant spell has bound me

And I cannot, cannot go.

The giant trees are bending

Their bare boughs weighed with snow.

And the storm is fast descending,

And yet I cannot go.

Clouds beyond clouds above me,

Wastes beyond wastes below;

But nothing drear can move me;

I will not, cannot go.

I've been looking up analysis on other poems, but I've been wanting to just read a poem at face value and let it marinate and then churn out whatever raw analysis comes to me. Part of me is afraid to share my thoughts cause I might be missing the obvious or intended meaning that's common knowledge to other poem fans. But anything more or less would just be deceptive or dishonest so I'll venture. 

First pass (froth to first quarter) initial observations

The first thing that stuck out, were the modalities. Visually darkening, cold sensation of wind on skin. Immobile. Then the metaphor of the tree, human-like but now from physical to maybe more emotional. "yet" as in still - also still. But then again I think the yet holds a quality of persuasion or on-the-fense kind of feel.

"Cannot go" 

From denial "cannot" to contemplating "connot," maybe okay with stillness. To the last stanza - a sense of stretching on forever. Fear couldn't move me if it tried. The surrender. The "cannot" go is not only acceptance but embraced now. I'm spellbound and I'd have it no other way. - - Or the writers frozen to death. You pick.

Second pass. (Spoken)

Poems are made for the fun of how they roll off the mind and then fall from the mouth! I LOVE the hard consonants! "M"s "N"s and Ts or Ds. Just say it out loud. Listen and feel for the natural break and pause demanded between: cannot, yet and will not (each ending in t) and the next word "cannot go." Also the hard double n. Other words spoken that I find myself hanging on to the consonants of, are: "nighT" "darKening. WilD, winds, colDly. Doesn't it just go with the theme of" cannot go". But then notice, nothing is truly bound really. No end of line ends in a hard consonant. They're all open, free flowing words. "Me blow, go, snow, below." even "*ding." has a tone of release to it. Yet only as an after thought.

3rd Pass feel and imagry 

Dark, cold, windy. A powerful restrictiveness. Bondage. Helplessness. 

Large, burdened. Vulnerable, oppressed, heavy, cold. Impending danger, fury, adverse. Halting, pause, contemplative. Frozen. 

Expansive high, cognative, dreamlike. 

Barren, open, potential, terrain. Here. 

Unwilling, resolute, immobility. 

It's just occurred to me that cannot, cannot might be less of a repeat and more of a double negative. Like I can't see myself doing anything but going. "Can't, cannot go." which would match the pattern of attitude change from go to maybe to stay. 

Final thoughts 1 of 2

I'd like to think that the author is just stepping out into the storm and the cold wind hits you in the face and you think, "Burr! I should run to my car and get out of this weather." But then you see how the snow beautifully bends the branches and it gives you pause. "Look, see the brilliant white color of snow." and the cold doesn't matter as much cause there's beauty of winter, right there. And even the bleakest elements, at this point, can't distract you cause you're spellbound and the expansivness is beautiful. And the bleakest drear outcome wouldn't get you to your car faster cause you just want to soak it all in, even if it freezes you. 

It could also be more symbolic of nature teaching us mortal lessons of our own humanity.

Our life is hard, circumstances won't change. We feel imprisoned. But even our biggest burdens, if we're open about them, give us a reason to stop and wonder... In the chaos and stress of impending doom, we're still here, still surviving, somehow made it this far. Maybe our dreams can still be realized. Maybe our futures are not doom and gloom but a blank canvas open and ready to create whatever dreams we want. And our stubbornness reframed to serve our future than our imagined prison. 

Final thoughts 2 of 2

But then again, my first impression, the one without analyzing it to death, and just letting it exist in its own poetic space... 

I see a bleak scene of winter. A traveler hurries along to stay warm, but despite their best effort, ends up slowing and eventually freezing to death, a victim of the powerful spell of winter. Oh, and they like it. 

Or one who is progressively captivated by winter and gets so distracted that they end up freezing to death. Too Macabre?? 

What do you think?? Comments welcome!