The Complete Poems of Emily Brontë/Companions all day long we've stood
IV
Companions all day long we've stood
The wild winds restless blowing,
All day we've watched the darkened flood
Around our vessel flowing.
Sunshine has never smiled since morn,
And clouds have gathered drear,
And heavier hearts would feel forlorn
And weaker minds would fear.
But look in each young shipmate's eyes
Lit by the evening flame,
And see how little stormy skies
Our joyous blood can tame.
No face one same expression wears,
No lip the same soft smile;
Yet kindness warms and courage cheers,
Nerves every breast the while.
It is the hour of dreaming now,
With blue and ghostly gleams,
And sweetest in a reddened glow
The hour of dreaming seems.
I may not trace the thoughts of all,
But some I read so well,
As I can hear the ocean's fall
And sudden surging swell.
The swifter soul is gone before,
It treads a forest wide,
Where bowers are bending to the shore
And gazing on the tide.
And one is there—I know the voice,
The thrilling, stirring tone,
That makes his bounding pulse rejoice,
Yet makes not his alone.
Mine own hand longs to clasp her hand,
Mine eye to meet her eye;
The white sails win Zorayda's strand,
And flout against her sky.
September 17, 1840, E.J. Brontë.