The Poetry Stash: 11Mar2024

Spellbound by Emily Brontë

Today’s poem is “Spellbound” by Emily Brontë. Edward Hirsch writes a wonderful commentary on this poem (as well as many others) in his book How to Read a Poem and Fall in Love with Poetry. The book is available for purchase here.

Spellbound by Emily Brontë

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.

Prompts:

1.	Begin with: “Spellbound…”
2.	Begin with “I cannot…”
3.	Read the poem aloud. Can you hear the formal ABAB rhyme scheme at the end of each line, the alliteration of "wild winds", "bare boughs", the echoing repetition of words? Draft a poem with formal end rhyme or one with a free verse structure that includes literary sound devices such as alliteration. A brief discussion of literary sound devices can be found here.
4.	Make a list of emotions. Make a list of things you notice in a landscape you know well (urban, rural, suburban). What items on the landscape list could embody or create an emotion or what emotions affect the way you observe the landscape?

5. Photo by Plato Terentev. Use this image as a writing prompt.

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