Spellbound - 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 dear can move me;

I will not, cannot go.




Responding to the Title - 9

n Emily Bronte’s Spellbound, Emily Bronte sets a turbulent tone with diction that turns from dark and helpless to stubborn as well as with unpredictable syntax. The title Spellbound implies that a person is held to something against their will, and this is reflected in the language. The bleak diction includes wild winds, tyrant, bending, fast descending, and wastes which set clear visual and tactile imagery of the turmoil the speaker is enduring. The syntax also does not have a clear pattern and haphazardly switches between commas, semicolons, and periods, further showing the violence of the environment. The speaker repeats in all three stanzas that she “cannot go,” and speaks of a tyrant that has bound her, revealing her inability to leave or take control of her actions, despite the horrible conditions. The repetitive usage of passive voice further demonstrates the idea of being out of control and perhaps displacing blame on the spell she believes she is under. The title fits well with the speaker’s helpless outlook, however, in the last line (12) of the poem, she breaks the repetition of “I cannot go” with “I will not, cannot go.” This statement shows change in the speaker who finally takes a stance. And through the realization that she is staying by choice, she takes responsibility over her actions and is no longer spellbound.