In Charlotte Brontë's poem, "On the Death of Anne Brontë," the speaker dramatizes her reaction to the death of her sister, who was "one [she] would have died to save."
Charlotte Brontë’s “On the Death of Anne Brontë,” consists of four quatrains, each with the rime scheme ABAB.
First Quatrain: “There's little joy in life for me”
The speaker asserts that she feels a certain equanimity toward existence with “little joy” for living and “little terror” of dying. But she also implies that she is experiencing a time of sorrow, because she has lived long enough to see the death of someone about whom she cared deeply.
She expresses her great affection for this person, who is, of course, the poet’s sister, by claiming she would have died to save her. But such is life and death, and here she is expressing her utter sorrow in a poem.
Second Quatrain: “Calmly to watch the failing breath”
In the second quatrain, the speaker dramatizes the final hours of watching her sister dying. As the dying one gasps for breath, the watcher can only helplessly “wish” that each “failing breath” would be the last. She intuits that her poor sister is suffering, and she wants that suffering to end.
And although it is, of course, the last thing she would “wish” and “long” for, she is forced to anticipate “the shade of death / O’er those belovèd features cast.” She struggles as she wishes for her sister’s soul to finally experience its exit from the body, because she finds it so painful to see her sister’s body suffering.
Third Quatrain: “The cloud, the stillness that must part”
The speaker likens death to a “cloud” and to “stillness” that will take her beloved sister’s soul from her body, thus “part[ing] / The darling of my life from me.” The speaker anticipates that she will “thank God from [her] heart.” She will be grateful when her sister’s soul has departed, and the dying one no longer has to suffer the sorrowful and painful transition she is now undergoing.
The speaker attempts to report as calmly and objectively as possible as she, at the same time, dramatizes the event that is so crucial, so vitally important. The experience of dying represents one of the most critical events for the individual soul as well as for the loved ones who have become attached to that individual as a loving personality.
Fourth Quatrain: “Although I knew that we had lost”
In the fourth quatrain, the speaker expresses how important that sister was to her and the rest of the family. They had “lost / The hope and glory of [their] life.” And each family member now has to “bear alone the weary strife,” as each feels “benighted” and “tempest-tossed.”
