Remembrance Setting

Where It All Goes Down

We know that Emily Brontë wasn't exactly the simplest gal in the world, so it makes sense that there would be two versions of the same poem with different settings.

Bear with us: the original manuscript of "Remembrance" was entitled "R. Alcona to J. Brenzaida" and was set in Gondal. The story goes that Gondal's heroine, Rosina Alcona, laments to her long-dead beloved emperor, Julius Brenzaida. When Brontë's poems were later published, a number of changes were made and we got what we have here in "Remembrance," so we're going to stick with what we see in this poem rather than delve into the version set in Gondal.

At first we're cold in the earth, feeling that pile of snow over the dead lover's grave. Next we're hovering over mountains in the air, still above the grave but in a different way. Then we're feeling the heat of the sun melt the snow, but again, guess where we are… that's right: even when we're changing with the seasons or the elements, the speaker's focus is still on that tomb that holds her lover's corpse. So the setting is still very grave, only it looks a little different depending on the season and the speaker's mood.

When we get to the parts that sound a bit more cerebral, we notice that we're still focused on that grave but we're also in the more intellectual parts of the speaker's mind. For instance, the sixth stanza is all about the speaker strengthening her existence "without the aid of joy." So we're still thinking about that grave but we're doing so in a way that's set in the speaker's mind. All in all the setting is pretty consistent in terms of the speaker's focus, whether her thoughts are hovering over that grave or sternly denying her impulse to "hasten down to that tomb."