Will the Day Be Bright or Cloudy?

Will the day be bright or cloudy?

Sweetly has its dawn begun

But the heaven may shake with thunder

Ere the setting of the sun

Lady watch Apollo’s journey

Thus thy first born’s course shall be –

If his beams through summer vapours

Warm the earth all placidly

Her days shall pass like a pleasant dream in sweet tranquillity

If it darken if a shadow

Quench his rays and summon rain

Flowers may open buds may blossom

Bud and flower alike are vain

Her days shall pass like a mournful story in care and tears and pain.

If the wind be fresh and free

The wide skies clear and cloudless blue

The woods and fields and golden flowers

Sparkling in sunshine and in dew

Her days shall pass in Glory’s light the world’s drear desert through

Note: There seem to be a number of slightly different versions of this and many of Emily Brontë’s poems, with different line breaks, for example. I’m working from the Everyman’s Library Pocket Poets edition, in which the punctuation seems more minimal than in other editions. I did conduct some research but can’t ascertain which is truest to Brontë’s originals.

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