The range of literary works and figures that influenced the Brontës is
known to be considerable. While Charlotte, Branwell and Emily found
their greatest source of inspiration in the works of Byron and Sir Walter
Scott, Anne turned more frequently to the work of William Cowper.
Elizabeth Langland comments that Anne was ‘more influenced by
the eighteenth century than by the Romantic poets and novelists who
shaped her sisters.’1 Charlotte and Branwell make passing references to
Cowper’s poetry within their writing, but Anne’s relationship with the
poet is much more sustained and complex. Owing to Anne’s dedication
poem ‘To Cowper’ her creative relationship with the poet has long been
accepted and remarked upon by critics such as Inga-Stina Ewbank,
P.J.M. Scott, Marianne Thormählen and Sara J. Lodge.2 Yet while they
acknowledge the impact Cowper had on Anne’s poetic composition,
specific exploration of the verse is usually brief. In this essay I will
build on their findings to produce a thorough analysis and exploration
of this creative relationship, citing evidence of where it is present in
Anne’s work.
Anne’s respect for Cowper was one that registered with her siblings.
When Charlotte set out to capture the memory of Anne in her novel
Shirley, through the character of Caroline Helstone, she made Cowper’s
poetry central to it. Caroline recites ‘The Castaway’ before discussing
with Shirley Keeldar, often considered to be a version of Emily, her
feelings regarding the poet:
‘I hope William Cowper is safe and calm in heaven now,’ said Caroline.
‘Do you pity what he suffered on earth?’ asked Miss Keeldar.
‘Pity him, Shirley? What can I do else? He was nearly broken-hearted
when he wrote that poem, and it almost breaks one’s heart to read it. But he
found relief in writing it – I know he did; and that gift of poetry – the most
divine bestowed on man – was, I believe, granted to allay emotions when
their strength threatens harm. It seems to me, Shirley, that nobody should
write poetry to exhibit intellect or attainment. Who cares for that sort of
40
poetry? Who cares for learning – who cares for fine words in poetry? And
who does not care for feeling – real feeling – however simply, even rudely
expressed?’3
Charlotte read and edited her sister’s work, and she was aware of
Cowper’s creative impact as demonstrated here. Anne’s practice of
writing her concerns and fears into her poetry, in order to process her
spiritual anxieties, would have been well known to Charlotte. In The
Task Cowper writes, ‘There is a pleasure in poetic pains / Which only
poets know’ (II, 285-6).4 Both Cowper and Anne were familiar with the
pleasure which creativity could offer; it would act as a source of relief
from their spiritual pains. Cowper may have been the first to suggest
to the young Anne Brontë that poetry was such a refuge in times of
distress.
In this extract from the novel Charlotte also clearly shows Anne’s
feelings regarding Cowper. She highlights the intensity of emotion Anne
felt and her preoccupation with his salvation. Charlotte demonstrates
the family connection with Cowper: it is her novel in which this scene
appears, and her fictional representation of Emily is also aware of the
poet. However, she chooses to foreground Anne’s connection to Cowper.
His poetry was firmly situated within the family’s communal reading, but
Anne formed an intimate relationship with the poet. She interacted with
his work more than with any other apart from the Bible. Anne repeatedly
returned to it as a form of inspiration and also as an avenue through
which to voice alternating doubts and convictions about salvation.
This essay will explore how Anne, through her poetry, interacted
with Cowper as a method of processing her own spiritual beliefs. I
examine four of Anne’s foremost religious poems written during the
period 1841-4: ‘Despondency’ (1841), ‘To Cowper’ (1842), ‘A Word
to the Calvinists’ (1843), and ‘A Prayer’ (1844). Through an analysis of
these poems I demonstrate how Anne used the suffering of others, and
frequently Cowper’s, to express her own struggles with her faith. In an
attempt to save Cowper, through her poetry, she ultimately attempted to
save herself.
During this period Anne’s poems express feelings of doubt and
spiritual backsliding, and Cowper is the central source of inspiration.
However, as Langland explains, Anne and Cowper’s religious beliefs
41
differed considerably: ‘Cowper was an especial favourite, in whose work
Brontë found echoed her own religious preoccupations and questions.
Yet in her insistence on Universal Salvation, Brontë diverged sharply
from Cowper, a strict Calvinist given to fits of melancholy over his
possible damnation.’5 Anne’s divergence from Cowper is a product of
what Susan Wolfson deemed interaction rather than influence, in which
the writer’s work does not demonstrate a loyal interpretation but rather
exhibits strong feelings about certain aspects of the prior work, and
shows a tendency to dwell upon them.6 Anne’s emotional interaction with
Cowper is profound but cautious when it comes to matters of faith. Sara
J. Lodge argues that ‘Anne’s often deliberately plain religious lyrics and
the concern her novels display with depression, particularly religious
melancholy, as well as the promise of universal salvation, reflect her
continued interest in the questions posed by Cowper’s life and art.’7
Through her interaction with these questions, in relation to Cowper,
Anne is able to explore her own spiritual progress and suffering.
There are numerous branches of influence from various Christian
groups which can be located within the Brontës’ lives and works, ranging
from Evangelicalism and Wesleyan Methodism to Calvinism. Marianne
Thormählen is clear in her belief that ‘The Brontës resembled some of
the leading religious thinkers of their time, notably Thomas Erskine and
F.D. Maurice, in regarding religion as the concern of the individual soul
guided by God.’8 The Brontë children were not strictly bound to one
branch of Christianity. Each had their own particular beliefs, fuelled by
Patrick Brontë’s liberality with regard to his children’s education. Anne’s
personal belief in the doctrine of Universal Salvation derives from the
vision of Origen who, as Diarmaid MacCulloch explains, ‘asserted that
humankind will be saved through its own efforts with the help of Christ,
through purging which goes on past human death. He could not accept
that humankind or creation was totally fallen, as that would destroy
all moral responsibility’.9 Anne’s notions of Universal Salvation were
present from her youth, likely encouraged by the deaths of her mother
and sisters during her infancy. Universal Salvation, though not widely
accepted, reached a level of prominence in the nineteenth century
owing to the work of theologian Henry Bristow Wilson and philosopher
Friedrich Schleiermacher.
42
A persistent theme in Anne’s poetry and fiction is the notion that Hell
is not a permanent situation; all can eventually earn their way to Heaven.
Origen offered the confirmation Anne desired when he suggested that ‘all,
including Satan himself, have the chance to work back towards God’s
original purpose. All will be saved, since all come from God.’10 Origen’s
vision differs significantly from the Calvinist belief in predestination
that developed later. The Calvinist notion, as explained by MacCulloch,
suggests that ‘If salvation was entirely in God’s hands, as Luther said,
and human works were of no avail, then logically God took decisions of
individual salvation without reference to an individual’s life-story. God
decided to save some and logically also to consign others to damnation.’11
Whilst it was suggested that predestination would bring comfort, as you
could not lose your salvation, it filled Cowper and subsequently Anne
with immense dread. Anne vehemently opposed this notion, as shall be
seen in her poetry, and she used Cowper’s experience as a warning.
In December 1848 Anne replied to a letter she received from Rev.
D. Thom who had published The Assurance of Faith: or Calvinism
Identified with Universalism in 1828. Thom wrote to Anne’s pseudonym,
Acton Bell, after reading The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. Thom’s letter is
not extant but, from Anne’s reply, it is clear that Universalism was the
central focus. In response Anne wrote ‘I have seen so little controversial
Theology that I was not aware the doctrine of Universal Salvation had
so able and ardent an advocate as yourself; but I have cherished it from
my very childhood – with a trembling hope at first, and afterwards with
a firm and glad conviction of its truth. I drew it secretly from my own
heart and from the word of God before I knew that any other held it.’12
This revelation from Anne reveals not only the personal nature of her
faith but also the length of time she had held these beliefs. The indication
of progression is most significant: as a child it was a ‘trembling hope’
and by 1848 it is ‘firm’. It is in terms of this progression that Anne’s
poetic relationship with Cowper becomes significant.
In 1841 Anne wrote ‘Despondency’ which heavily interacts with
Cowper’s poem, ‘The Castaway’. Whereas Cowper’s castaway, ‘drank
/ The stifling wave, and then he sank’ (47-48),13 Anne pleads, ‘How
can I rouse my sinking soul / From such a lethargy?’ (5-6).14 The
symbolism of drowning remained present in her mind, inherited from
43
‘The Castaway’, but unlike Cowper’s victim she had not yet given up.
Throughout her poetry Cowper acts as a warning. Feeling the despair
of Cowper’s castaway Anne’s poetic voice calls for assistance where
Cowper’s does not. She wrote, ‘Lord Jesus, save me lest I die, / And hear
a wretch’s prayer’ (35-36).15 Whilst she is pleading in desperation there
is still hope. There is still faith that Christ will offer assistance in this
time of need. Cowper, in contrast, wrote:
No voice divine the storm allay’d,
No light propitious shone,
When, snatch’d from all effectual aid,
We perish’d, each, alone… (61-64)16
In contrast to Anne’s poem there is no hope of assistance from God and
a striking lack of entreaty to Him. Vincent Newey comments on how
‘Cowper’s outright acceptance in “The Castaway” of the fact that he
has perished inwardly and spiritually is accompanied by a concomitant
acceptance of a life and world without God. There is nothing in the
text, in fact, to hold it to the belief that the universe is God-directed;
He is simply not present’.17 Cowper’s complete loss of faith stood as a
warning to Anne of the depths to which religious despair could drive a
person.
Anne’s vision of hope shows that she did not simply locate herself
within Cowper’s work; she used Cowper as an example to encourage
her own spiritual progression. However, Anne’s progression frequently
encountered challenges. Whilst there is still hope enough to ask for Christ’s
assistance, a theme of doubt runs throughout, and it is in this mood that
the poem concludes: ‘O how shall I arise!’ (32).18 Anne’s adoption of an
exclamation point rather than a question mark is significant. Whilst this
could have been an error in transcription, as Chitham mentions in the
editorial notes,19 the meaning is in keeping with the tone of the piece.
The line reads as a question – a question implying that there is faith
in the possibility of help, that someone is listening. But by using an
exclamation point the line reads as a cry of utter despair, suggesting
that Anne’s voice is located closer to Cowper’s castaway than initially
perceived.
Echoing Cowper, the scale of the despair expressed is extensive.
Anne demonstrates this by the repetitive use of the conjunctive ‘And’
44
as the starting point of ten lines of the poem, portraying the sheer extent
of her grief and building a mountain of despair that cannot be overcome
without the aid of Christ. This is what Thormählen describes as ‘spiritual
backsliding, a particularly painful condition’.20 Brontë proclaimed, ‘I
have gone backward in the work, / The labour has not sped’ (1-2).21 The
noticeable discourse of fatigue – ‘Drowsy’, ‘dull’, ‘heavy’, ‘lethargy’ –
indicates that Anne was not necessarily commenting on a backsliding
into sin but rather a progression in faith which she deemed insufficient.
The use of the word ‘work’ indicates how Anne viewed her faith; it is
something that must continually be focused on and progression must
be made through Christian works. Nevertheless, while this initial poem
from Anne sobs with anguish it also retains hope as it closes with the
speaker caught in the act of prayer. Anne heeded Cowper’s warning in
‘Hope’: ‘Life without hope can close but in despair’ (274).22
Anne’s frequent questioning and interaction with varying notions of
religious faith are recurring features throughout her poetry. As Edward
Chitham remarks, ‘She is very rarely adamant, always leaves room for a
counter-argument or a counter-character. Her religion is a quest, a patient
sifting and internal discussion.’23 In ‘To Cowper’, whilst she initially
appears adamant in her assertion of Cowper’s salvation, the poem still
exhibits her characteristic questioning and uncertainty – even when
regarding a point about which she felt passionately. For the opening of
the poem Anne does not discuss Cowper on his own merits but in terms
of what he meant to her, her relationship, her emotions:
Sweet are thy strains, Celestial Bard,
And oft in childhood’s years
I’ve read them o’er and o’er again
With floods of silent tears.
The language of my inmost heart
I traced in every line –
My sins, my sorrows, hopes and fears
Were there, and only mine.
All for myself the sigh would swell,
The tear of anguish start;
I little knew what wilder woe
Had filled the poet’s heart. (1-12)24
45
The use of the phrase ‘inmost heart’ indicates that Anne found in
Cowper’s poetry emotions that she could not herself express. The stress
placed upon ‘My’ is the most prominent indicator of Anne’s attempt
to demonstrate the extent of her interaction with Cowper. It is a clear
representation of the powerful personal feelings of identification Anne
felt with Cowper and his work.
Anne’s focus on herself and her own feelings results in chastisement
of her own emotional selfishness in relation to Cowper. Whilst the
poem implies that she was not aware of Cowper’s suffering during her
childhood it did not alleviate the guilt she felt. When interacting with
Cowper she thought only of locating herself within his work at this time.
For Anne to be so enamoured of Cowper’s poetry with no knowledge
of his life was quite unusual. Newey comments, ‘One notices how often
the reviewers stress the presence of Cowper’s “self” within and behind
the poetry … or focus directly upon its autobiographical content’25, yet
Anne remained unaware.
The discovery of Cowper’s personal suffering appears to have been
the stimulus for this poem, and remains her focus for the subsequent
eight stanzas. Of Cowper’s suffering Anne writes:
I did not know the nights of gloom,
The days of misery,
The long long years of dark despair
That crushed and tortured thee. (13-16)26
Anne’s ‘nights of gloom’ refers to the troubled sleep Cowper recalls in
Adelphi at the time of his suicide attempts. ‘Before I rose from bed it
was suggested to me that there wanted nothing but murder to fill up the
measure of my iniquity, and that though I had failed in my design, yet I
had all the guilt of that crime to answer for. A sense of God’s wrath and a
deep despair of escaping it instantly succeeded.’27 It would undoubtedly
have been shocking for Anne to read of her hero’s suicide attempts, but
there is no judgement in her poem, only pity.
Despite the extensive suffering in Cowper’s life, Anne only dedicated
this one stanza to his misery. A pitiful wallowing was not the intention of
her poem. Instead the stanza is followed by Anne informing the reader
and, it appears, Cowper himself of his fate:
46
But they are gone, and now from earth
Thy gentle soul is passed.
And in the bosom of its God
Has found its Home at last. (17-20)28
Having read Cowper’s works Anne refused to accept the fate he foresaw
for himself. She used the strength of her own faith, at that moment, to
inform him of his salvation. Her poetry would grant him the salvation he
could not write for himself. By convincing herself of Cowper’s salvation
she could believe in her own.
Anne tried to support and enforce her point by asserting, ‘It must
be so if God is love’, ‘Then surely thou shalt dwell on high’ (21, 23).29
The use of ‘must’ and ‘surely’ suggests her certainty, yet the inclusion
of ‘if’ reveals her doubt, and suddenly the stanza becomes one through
which Anne tries to convince herself as well as Cowper. In an attempt
to re-imbue the poem with the initial tone of certainty Anne responds to
Cowper’s claim in ‘The Castaway’ that in his darkest moments he was
alone with: ‘in thine hours of deepest woe / Thy God was still with thee’
(27-28).30 However, the poem subsequently begins to unravel as Anne’s
certainty dissolves into her usual questioning; the final three stanzas of
the poem each close with a question. Anne’s one stanza of certainty is
quickly overshadowed by six subsequent stanzas of doubt.
Anne’s initial pursuit of Cowper’s salvation is unsuccessful as she is
able to envisage but fails to provide it. The poem concludes:
Yet should thy darkest fears be true,
If heaven be so severe
That such a soul as thine is lost,
O! how shall I appear? (41-44)31
Not only does she contemplate the fears of Cowper’s religious
melancholy; she concludes by allowing these fears to influence her and
induce religious doubt. As Thormählen explains, ‘Anne’s poems speak
of recurrent attempts to shore up faltering faith, and even when she
celebrates happy moments of religious conviction, calm assurance of
permanence is absent.’32 Anne was left in fear for her own salvation.
Anne’s search for salvation was not over, and within six months she
would compose another poem filled with a ferocity and certainty lacking
in her two previous poems. ‘A Word to the Calvinists’ is unusually
47
structured and could easily be read as two separate poems. The poem
still adopts Anne’s commonly used 4 line stanzas with an ABAB rhyme
scheme, but the metre of stanzas 1-7 differs noticeably from that of
stanzas 8-12; this arises from the distinctive tone of each section. The
tone adopted in the initial section differs considerably from Anne’s
previous work. Thormählen has suggested that: ‘It is a very powerful,
one might almost and paradoxically say condemnatory, attack….All
members of the Brontë family are on record as disapproving of the
Calvinist doctrine of election….Charlotte and Anne rejected it with an
intensity that bespeaks some sort of personal involvement.’33 One case
of Calvinism we can be certain encouraged Anne’s animosity was that
of Cowper.
In ‘To Cowper’ Anne had succumbed to doubt and failed to find the
salvation she sought for Cowper and herself. She returned to her cause
with a confidence she had previously lacked. Impassioned, she appears
to interrogate Calvinists by demanding:
And when you looking on your fellow men
Behold them doomed to endless misery,
How can you talk of joy and rapture?
May God withhold such cruel joy from me! (21-24)34
Cowper could clearly be seen as a victim of this endless misery. In a
profound final declaration Anne condemns herself for the sake of
others. The closing stanza shows her refusing salvation if all cannot
be saved. Anne repeats ‘And’ throughout the poem to demonstrate
the sheer urgency of her argument, as she did in her previous poem
‘Despondency’. Previously she used the repetition to emphasise her
grief, but in this case it drives home the cruelty and wrongdoing of the
Calvinists, punctuating the long list of accusations she has for them.
There is also Anne’s characteristic questioning, but where previously
she was asking Christ for guidance, in this case the questions proceed
from disbelief and disgust. Previously it was her faith on trial; in this
poem she is the one in control as she puts their faith under scrutiny.
The latter half of the poem differs not only in metre and tone, but also
greatly in approach. Whereas the first half was dominated by questions,
in the second Anne states in the text itself that she does not want to ask
questions: ‘I ask not how remote the day / Nor what the sinner’s woe /
48
Before their dross is purged away’ (41-43).35 In this poem Anne’s faith is
stable and unquestioning, rather than doubtful. She also clearly specifies
that even those who have turned their back on Christ will be saved,
‘That even the wicked shall at last / Be fitted for the skies’ (37-38),
‘They’ll cling to what they once disdained / And live by him that died’
(47-48)36 – a staple of her faith in Universal Salvation. At this moment
the doubt previously described in ‘Despondency’ and ‘To Cowper’ is
silenced. No matter what Cowper did and suffered, and no matter her
own moments of spiritual backsliding, she is adamant that eventually
they will be saved.
Thormählen claims that ‘It is impossible to overstate the boldness of
Anne’s position as regards salvation…It was one thing to argue, as her
father and Adam Clarke did, that all may be saved. It is quite another to
assert that all will ultimately be saved, through God’s mercy and Christ’s
Atonement.’37 Anne retained her universalist position, that all would be
saved, throughout her subsequent writing career. At this point, although
her notions regarding her spiritual progress appeared stable, belief in her
faith and salvation continued to be shaken. In ‘A Prayer’, composed a
year after ‘A Word to the Calvinists’, she explores the ongoing trials she
continued to experience with her faith.
Unlike the previous three poems, ‘A Prayer’ is composed as a hymn,
perhaps inspired by the hymns of Cowper. Following her ‘Celestial
Bard’, Anne did not shy away from the struggles of faith in her hymns.
In Adelphi, Cowper made the struggles he faced when it came to prayer
clear. He confessed that he ‘then for the first time attempted prayer in
secret, but being little accustomed to that exercise of the heart and having
very childish notions of religion, I found it a difficult and painful task
and was even then frightened at my own insensibility.’38 This struggle
with prayer foreshadows Cowper’s madness and suicide attempts; it acts
as a forewarning of the danger that can arise if prayer is abandoned.
In ‘A Word to the Calvinists’ Anne may have fought for and found the
salvation she desired for Cowper, but her own salvation was something
she could not be sure of. The battle for her faith continued in her verse.
In ‘A Prayer’ she reverted to her feelings of spiritual backsliding,
explored three years earlier in ‘Despondency’. Through the personal
tone of the poem Anne also brought herself rather than others, such as
49
Cowper, to the fore. Whether using her own poetic voice, or that of a
Gondal character,39 there is a consistent focus on the individual rather
than an overarching, representative message in the majority of Anne’s
poetry. This highlights the significance of ‘To Cowper’ and ‘A Word to
the Calvinists’ in which Anne chose, instead, to speak for others and it is
what makes these poems some of her most passionate. They foreshadow
the creative fire and the fearless step into controversy she would later
take in her second novel The Tenant of Wildfell Hall; Anne’s voice is
strongest when protesting for others. By adopting the hymn form Anne
used her own suffering to assist fellow sufferers, the way Cowper did
for her.
The problem of spiritual backsliding was one experienced by
many. As Thormählen observes, ‘Holding on to one’s childhood faith
is a feat which very few religious thinkers at any point in time have
accomplished’.40 Cowper’s poetry, as Anne herself experienced, proved
a balm to the spiritual distress of many and this is what Anne attempted
to replicate. In accordance with the musical nature of the hymn she
adopts lyrical techniques such as alliteration –‘feeble faith’(4), ‘future
fills’(7)41 – and a refrain, repeating the final line of each stanza. These
techniques dramatise Anne’s portrayal of suffering and lend a desperation
to the poetic voice; her faith is feeble and the future she foresees fills her
with dismay.
The emotional desolation of this poem is the most extreme of the
four explored in this essay; the second stanza even suggests thoughts of
suicide:
Not only for the past I grieve,
The future fills me with dismay;
Unless Thou hasten to relieve,
I know my heart will fall away. (6-9)42
Previously Anne expressed religious doubt, but now her grief has
progressed. In ‘A Prayer’ she no longer feels capable of saving herself. It
is unclear whether she is referring to the loss of her faith, the loss of her
sanity, or the loss of her life, but of loss she is certain. In her desperation
Anne asks God to take strong action: she writes, ‘O, take this heart I
cannot give. / Do Thou my Strength my Saviour be; / And make me to
Thy glory live!’ (15-17).43 The use of ‘take’ and ‘make’ demonstrate the
50
extent of her spiritual turmoil. The poetic voice is helpless, unwilling,
and in what remains of her faith she asks for divine intervention.
An intriguing element within this tone of helplessness is the word
‘cannot’. While it could suggest spiritual and physical exhaustion,
meaning Anne is unable to fulfil her duty to God, it could also suggest an
unexplained resistance – the aspect of character from which she wanted
to be rescued. In her 1845 diary paper, Anne revealed the personal turmoil
she underwent during that period. Of her time at Thorp Green she wrote,
‘I have had some very unpleasant and undreamt of experience of human
nature.’44 Whilst the experience can only be conjectured, witnessing her
brother become involved in an extra-marital affair with their employer
is undoubtedly an aspect. Watching her brother descend into sin required
Anne’s faith in Universal Salvation to be firm, to not believe her brother
condemned, and yet her faith appeared shaken beyond repair. Anne wrote
the diary paper nine months after she composed ‘A Prayer’ and yet her
feelings had not recovered. She wrote of her own personal despair, ‘I for
my part cannot well be flatter or older in mind than I am now.’45
The four poems demonstrate that Anne did have moments of certainty,
but that ultimately her spiritual progress was still not complete. Through
her writing, Anne may have been able to convince herself of Cowper’s
salvation but not her own. P.J.M. Scott suggested that to find the spiritual
answers she desired and come to terms with these in order to gain peace
for herself and others was ‘a major – perhaps the major – task in Anne
Brontë’s life…the difficulty of the gulf she had laboriously to traverse in
pain of mind, body and spirit before she arrived at peace.’46 In regard
to Cowper, Newey has suggested that ‘only in death did he find lasting
release from the insistent claims of cheerless and self-conscious vision.’47
For the majority of her adult life Anne replicated similar spiritual and
psychological traumas to those that Cowper experienced. She continued
to draw inspiration from Cowper;48 he may only have found peace in
death but Anne persevered in her spiritual progression.
It was not in her poetry but in her final novel, The Tenant of Wildfell
Hall, that Anne achieved the spiritual stability she had sought throughout
her writing. After her husband’s death Helen Huntingdon, the novel’s
heroine, laments:
51
How could I endure to think that that poor trembling soul was hurried away
to everlasting torment? it would drive me mad! But thank God I have hope
– not only from a vague dependence on the possibility that penitence and
pardon might have reached him at the last, but from the blessed confidence
that, through whatever purging fires the erring spirit may be doomed to pass
– whatever fate awaits it, still, it is not lost, and God, who hateth nothing that
he hath made, will bless it in the end!49
This echoes the pity and hope that were characteristic of Anne’s poetry.
Gone is the questioning and doubt; she could finally express her spiritual
beliefs with certainty. She underlined the strength of belief with the
italicisation of ‘will’ and the concluding exclamation mark. She no
longer relies on ‘vague dependence’ but has ‘blessed confidence’ in her
spiritual convictions.
This essay has traced Anne Brontë’s spiritual progression, inspired
by her interaction with William Cowper’s works, and expressed in her
poetry. Anne’s adoption of Cowper as her focus allowed her to explore
her own spiritual concerns. This source of personal inspiration allowed
her to develop individually as a writer and to find that her key strength
lay in writing on behalf of others. In the preface to the second edition of
The Tenant of Wildfell Hall she declared: ‘Such humble talents as God
has given me I will endeavour to put to their greatest use…when I feel it
my duty to speak an unpalatable truth, with the help of God, I will speak
it.’50 Through her interaction with Cowper’s works, which encouraged
her own brutally honest compositions, Anne achieved the confidence
and determination to tackle the harsh realities of her final novel.
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