Why Emily Brontë was the Greatest Poet to Ever Live: An Essay

Have you ever read a poem so artfully written and emotionally thrilling that it gives you chills? This is exactly what occurs when many read the works of English author Emily Jane Brontë. Brontë, who was born in Yorkshire in 1818, is best known for her only novel, Wuthering Heights (1847), published under her pseudonym, Ellis Bell. Brontë's only published poems were included in Poems by Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell (1846), a compilation of poetry by Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë, which sold only two copies. Although Wuthering Heights was extremely well received, Brontë never knew of her fame: she died a year after its publication at the age of thirty.  Emily Brontë was the greatest poet to ever live because of the skilled rhythms and rhymes of her lines, her distinct ability to convey emotion, and her astounding aptitude at understanding human nature.

One reason Emily Brontë was the greatest poet to ever live is the skilled rhythms and rhymes of her lines. In poems such as The Prisoner, Brontë shows off her immense talent at manipulating words and phrases, creating phonetic patterns and flows that rival Shakespeare himself. The first stanza of The Prisoner exhibits this well:

"In the dungeon-crypts idly did I stray,

Reckless of the lives wasting there away;
'Draw the ponderous bars! open, Warder stern!'
He dared not say me nay—the hinges harshly turn."

Brontë's ability to switch between tenses and conjugations while still keeping the reader engrossed in the rich storyline displays perfectly her mastery of language. The beats and phrasing are poetic enough to draw the reader in, yet not pretentious enough to create an unrealistic air about the poem. This supports the idea that Emily Brontë was the greatest poet to ever live in part because of the skilled rhythms and rhymes of her lines.

Another reason Emily Brontë was the greatest poet to ever live is because of her distinct ability to convey emotion. In works like High Waving Heather, Brontë shows her immense gift for portraying vibrantly pure yet nuanced feeling that is so characteristic of the human mind. Even in poems relating solely to natural phenomena, Brontë still adds a passionate and thrilling intensity to the language. The first stanza of High Waving Heather shows this expertly:

"High waving heather, 'neath stormy blasts bending,

Midnight and moonlight and bright shining stars;
Darkness and glory rejoicingly blending,
Earth rising to heaven and heaven descending,
Man's spirit away from its drear dungeon sending,
Bursting the fetters and breaking the bars!"

The fiery fervor of Brontë's writing exhibits flawlessly her spectacular talent at conveying emotion. And although the language and syntax of poetry is important, the semantics are what truly resonates with us long after we have finished our last reading. Brontë's dramatic themes of death, love, and the wildness of the soul are communicated expertly in her smooth, flowing stanzas and lines that exude so much emotion that we can feel it ourselves. This is another reason why Emily Brontë was the greatest poet of all time. 

Finally, Emily Brontë was the greatest poet of all time because of her astounding apitude at understanding human nature. Although Brontë was known to be extremely shy and at her happiest when wandering the wild Yorkshire moors with her dog, Keeper, she had an ability to understand all the fundamental emotions and experiences of humans. Even though she was never married, Brontë wrote of the relationship between a dying husband and his wife in her poem A Death-Scene  like she knew it well. The first three stanzas of the poem exhibit this well:

"O Day! he cannot die

When thou so fair art shining!
O Sun, in such a glorious sky,
So tranquilly declining;

He cannot leave thee now,
While fresh west winds are blowing,
And all around his youthful brow
Thy cheerful light is glowing!

Edward, awake, awake—
The golden evening gleams
Warm and bright on Arden's lake—
Arouse thee from thy dreams!"

Brontë's innate knowledge of human feeling speaks for itself in poems such as this one; the love, sorrow and devotion of the narrator (likely recurring character Queen Augusta Geraldine Almeda, created by Brontë and her sister Anne during their childhoods) is so artfully represented that it would be natural to assume that Brontë was writing from her own perspective. The fact that she was not makes the already impressive feat even more astounding. This also supports the claim that Emily Brontë was the greatest poet to ever live.

Although the life of Emily Brontë was cut tragically short by tuberculosis, her legacy as the most talented of the Brontë sisters lives on through her novel Wuthering Heights and her countless brilliant poems. Emily Brontë was the greatest poet to ever live because of the skilled rhythms and rhymes of her lines, her distinct ability to convey emotion, and her astounding apittude at understanding human nature. Brontë's relatively little-known poems include such artful composition and themes that it would be a crime for them to remain unnoticed any longer- so go out and read some of the poems of the greatest poet to ever live, Emily Brontë!