No Coward Soul Is Mine: selected poems

Emily Jane Brontë was born in Yorkshire, England, in 1818, to the Irish Reverend Patrick Brontë and Maria Branwell Brontë. The early years were darkened by the loss of her mother and the two oldest of six siblings. Apart from a few short periods throughout her life, Emily remained at Haworth Parsonage, where she was brought up by her father, and by her aunt Elizabeth Branwell. The environment surrounding the four children brewed the creative spirits that resulted in very meticulously imagined fantasy lands – such as Emily’s and Anne’s land of Gondal – and later some of the most famous English novels.

Together, the three sisters Charlotte, Emily and Anne, published a collection of poems in 1846 under the respective pen names Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell. Upon revision for publication, Emily removed any references to Gondal. However, her Gondal poems survive in a notebook dated 1844. Her poetry touches on topics such as nature, love, friendship, hope and death. Her only but very famous novel, Wuthering Heights, was published in 1847 under the pseudonym Ellis Bell, a year before her early death in 1848.

This edition presents a selection of 43 poems from The Complete Poems by Emily Jane Brontë, edited by Clement Shorter and arranged and collated by C. W. Hatfield (London: Hodder and Stoughton, 1923). Some changes have been based on existing manuscripts, such is the case with the first poem of this book (High waving heather ’neath stormy blasts bending), following Janet Gezari’s rationale to keep it free of punctuation – her thorough research is recommended to the curious, philologically interested reader. The present collection does not include chronological information but aims at providing a unique sequence, telling a new story.

Collection: Discover the Classics

Author: Emily Brontë

Language: English

Measurements: 120×182 mm (softcover)

Pages: 120

Publisher: TEGNER-publishing, Lda

Chancela: CARRACK books

First edition: April 2024