The Healing Journey

July 30, 2025

Emily Jane Brontë (July 30, 1818 – December 19, 1848) was an English poet and novelist, best known for her novel “Wuthering Heights.” The third eldest of four surviving children, she was the younger sister of Charlotte Brontë, born in Thornton, near Bradford in Yorkshire. Emily was a solitary person who understood loss. When she was 3, her mother Maria died of cancer. All six children in the family, who were under 8 years old, went to live with their aunt. While still a child, she lost her two elder sisters with whom she was close. Her poem “Sympathy,” urges hope in the face of loss.

Sympathy

By Emily Brontë

There should be no despair for you
While nightly stars are burning;
While evening pours its silent dew,
And sunshine gilds the morning.
There should be no despair, though tears
May flow down like a river:
Are not the best beloved of years
Around your heart forever?

They weep, you weep, it must be so;
Winds sigh as you are sighing,
And Winter sheds his grief in snow
Where Autumn’s leaves are lying:
Yet these revive, and from their fate
Your fate cannot be parted:
Then journey on, if not elate,
Still, never broken-hearted!

Hear a reading of “Sympathy,” https://youtu.be/XDNH7xuVpxk

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