A Remembrance to Forgetfulness

Cold in the earth - and the deep snow piled above thee,
Far, far, removed, cold in the dreary grave!
Have I forgot, my only Love, to love thee,
Severed at last by Time's all-severing wave?

...

Sweet Love of youth, forgive, if I forget thee,
While the world's tide is bearing me along;
Other desires and other hopes beset me,
Hopes which obscure, but cannot do thee worng.

...

Then did I check the tears of useless passion -
Weaned my young soul from yearning after thine;
Sternly denied its burning wish to hasten
Down to that tomb already more than mine.

....

Select stanzas (1, 4, and 7) of Remembrance by Emily Bronte.

Though the entire poem is powerful these stanzas have stood out to me. Time will not heal. It will sever, but it will not heal. In fact someone said that if there is healing to be done it will not be done by Time but will only be shown or proven through Time. It is not time that heals and although I am not sure that I would say that this is the only thing that heals I would say that it is one of the solutions for healing. I am referring to the distractions of the second (or fourth) stanza. A man needs adventures out of himself to be able to forget the love he bears. Sometimes I need simply to distract myself through other means to erase the memory of someone. Unfortunately it is when I go about purposefully trying to distract myself that I find myself prone to think of that person most. If I read I see that person in the characters of what I read. If I watch a movie I reminisce over the person I want to watch it with. If I listen to music (ah, if I listen to music...) I want nothing more than to share that song with that person I miss. And yet I realize that I must discipline myself to forget what I cannot have (stanza 7). Sometimes it does require death. The death of self. My soul is still young and I will not spend it on longing for what I cannot have. I have to force myself to forget her. To move on. Aaargh!