Evening Solace-Elizabeth Bronte

Charlotte Bronte’s Evening of Solace is a poem that expresses complex human thoughts in words. The title of the poem is the best moment in the day in which a person can come in terms with oneself.  In this specific poem I believe Bronte is trying to reveal to the reader that solitude will bring forth revelations. The poems uses words that draws the idea of loneliness not necessarily in a positive light or a negative .The diction of being solo is spread all over the poem which create a sense of comfort, reflecting the title.

The very beginning of the poem establishes the sense of solitude,

“The human heart has hidden treasures,
In secret kept, in silence sealed;--
The thoughts, the hopes, the dreams, the pleasures,
Whose charms were broken if revealed.”

the heart holds many, many secrets and secrets are something that you keep to yourself if in fact you want it to be a secret because we all know if you tell a single soul it’s no longer a secret no matter how much they swear up and down, right and left to keep their big mouth shut. That through being alone can one really keep the hidden treasures hidden or the thoughts, hopes, idea, pleasure locked up. These truths from the heart are special as the poem says and that through sharing the uniqueness is lost. When I read this it makes me think “Wow, maybe this is what Steve Jobs felt when he first took calligraphy and realized that he wanted to make things that are aesthetic.”  Additionally through solitude things really come together and build meaning.

“But there are hours of lonely musing,
Such as in evening silence come,
When, soft as birds their pinions closing,
The heart's best feelings gather home.”

It’s not enough to have ideas, thoughts, dreams, hopes, and everything else when one cannot connect the thoughts and see the bigger pictures. From the lines above she points out to the reader that being alone help “gather” the feelings, the feelings are able to be imprinted in the heart and be a part of the person. That in a sense goes with the idea that to be able to love another one has to love themselves first. Love that comes from loving oneself first is a great and more powerful type of love. Yet those who are always so hung up on wanting to be a part of a crowd will not come to realize. The person who takes time alone will realize such a truth.

                Charlotte Bronte’s poem on the surface basically is trying to tell the reader that being alone is not something that is negative. Upon more readings of the poem I come to realize that loneliness used constructively, such as a time of reflection, will help the person make sense of things. That was my main point using the two quotations above. However, there is more, solitude creates the foundation for human’s thirst for more. More in the sense that it could be anything knowledge, material things, anything there is no limit because the mind is limitless.  The ending of the poem spark that idea

                                “By lonely hour and darkened room,

                                To solemn thoughts that soar to heave

                                Seeking a life and world to come.”

if solitude can help you realize certain things then it will also make a person seek for the answer for things which might have never crossed their mind if they didn’t take a moment to reflect. Solitude sparks the process of thought and once that process starts it can grow exponentially and simple thoughts can be evolved into more complex ideas. That is the picture that I think Bronte is trying to paint that thoughts “seeking a life and a world to come” that it’s in our hearts and soul as human beings to want to know more, see more, taste more, experience more and do so much more.  And perhaps not everyone comes to realize this that thought is a gift, which everyone opens at a different time.

            This poem Evening Solace plays with the idea of solitude and  how it can reveal, help thoughts grow and make the reader seek for more.