In Emily Bronte's 'I'm Happiest When Most Away' her imagery is said to be suggestive of Buddhist and meditational practices. That is to say she talks about being "happiest when most away" when she "can bear my soul from its home of clay". This can be said to suggest the body and exploring the mind, or the deeper being that you realise, in meditation.
Her eye wandering "through worlds of light" gives off the impression of a deep understanding into the notion of reality while the second stanza certainly touches on a separateness from material existence and the grasping of a spirit.
Bronte was not a Buddhist, and struggled with Christian ideas of God on the one hand and a personal idea of the spirit on the other.
When it comes to interpreting poetry of course no one can really be fully confident they know what the poet was trying to convey. Poetry by its nature lends itself to a vague interpretation and it should be up to the reader to take what they want from a piece.
What you can do from a critical point of view is to analyse the metaphorical inferences and usage of certain imagery and then piece together what the author was leaning towards.
Her eye wandering "through worlds of light" gives off the impression of a deep understanding into the notion of reality while the second stanza certainly touches on a separateness from material existence and the grasping of a spirit.
Bronte was not a Buddhist, and struggled with Christian ideas of God on the one hand and a personal idea of the spirit on the other.
When it comes to interpreting poetry of course no one can really be fully confident they know what the poet was trying to convey. Poetry by its nature lends itself to a vague interpretation and it should be up to the reader to take what they want from a piece.
What you can do from a critical point of view is to analyse the metaphorical inferences and usage of certain imagery and then piece together what the author was leaning towards.
