E X T E N S I O N EMILY AND HER POETRY When Charlotte Bront discovered a little handwritten book of her sister s poetry, she was amazed and deeply moved by its beauty. She had great difficulty in persuading Emily to allow the poetry to be published, but eventually, in 1846, this was done. The edition, financed by the three sisters themselves, contained twenty-one poems by Emily and Anne, and nineteen by Charlotte. They used the pseudonyms of Currer, Ellis and Acton, and although it had encouraging reviews, only two copies were actually sold. Although the Bront children were cared for when Wood engraving by P. Forster they were young by their (The Folio Society, 2006). father and aunt, there was not very much love or affection shown by the adults, and feelings and emotions were not discussed easily. Perhaps this is why the children looked for a way of expressing their emotions through their imaginations and poetic language. Emily would often take her notebook and walk alone out onto the moors, where she would sit on her favourite rock, and pour out all she felt inside, which could never be said within her family. This notebook grew to be full of her poetry inspired by her isolation, both physical and emotional. In one of her poems, To Imagination (Sept. 1844), she personifies Imagination as a physical presence, quite separate from the individual. Perhaps this is how she searched so deeply inside herself to create her novel. I trust not to thy1 phantom bliss2, Yet still in evening s quiet hour, With never-failing thankfulness, 1. thy, thee (old fashioned): words meaning your, you (2nd person singular only). 2. bliss: perfect happiness. 46