Featured Poem: Moonlight, Summer Moonlight by Emily Brontë
Celebrating the 200th anniversary of her birth, our Featured Poem this week is Moonlight, Summer Moonlight by Emily Brontë.
Today marks the 200th anniversary since the birth of Emily Brontë. She would die of tuberculosis aged just 30 but in her short life, Emily was to write a respected body of poetry, and her only novel, Wuthering Heights, would remain, consistently, in the best-selling list of classic novels in the English language.
Our thoughts today, turn to her poetry and to Moonlight, Summer Moonlight, which feels particularly timely in light of the recent Blood Moon.
Moonlight, Summer Moonlight
'Tis moonlight, summer moonlight,
All soft and still and fair;
The solemn hour of midnight
Breathes sweet thoughts everywhere,
But most where trees are sending
Their breezy boughs on high,
Or stooping low are lending
A shelter from the sky.
And there in those wild bowers
A lovely form is laid;
Green grass and dew-steeped flowers
Wave gently round her head.
Share
Related Articles
January’s Title Pick for Children: King of the Sky by Nicola Davies
King of the Sky is a wonderful picture book, exploring ideas of belonging and dislocation. The illustrations are muted,…
January’s Title Pick for Adults: Orbital by Samantha Harvey
In our January title pick, Orbital, we accompany six astronauts, two women and four men, from Britain, Italy, Japan, the United…
The Reader unveils new Bookshelf for 2026
The UK’s biggest Shared Reading charity today launches its 6th annual Reader Bookshelf - a carefully curated collection of stories, plays, and poems - at the start of the…