"A Daydream" is a poem by British author Emily Brontë about the transition of the seasons. Published in 1846, the poem appeared as part of a collection that Brontë released with her sisters Anne and Charlotte, titled Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell. They used male pseudonyms to conform to the gender restrictions of the period. Brontë is mostly known for her famous Gothic romance, Wuthering Heights. However, from a young age, she wrote a significant amount of poetry. With Charlotte and Anne's encouragement, she eventually selected some for publication. Her work often shows a preoccupation with loss, memory, and the passage of time. In this particular poem, a speaker tries to reconcile herself with the knowledge that summer will pass, and to appreciate it while it is happening.
The poem opens with a cheerful description of summer, imagined as the wedding of the months of May and June. The speaker says the event is radiant and full of life, but she feels cheerless and takes a moment to investigate why. She reasons that it is because she can already perceive signs that summer is ending even in its early stages. Then a seemingly divine figure speaks to her and informs her that beautiful things are only beautiful precisely because they have an end and that she should enjoy these brief glimpses. The poem concludes with an image of the day's end.
The poem is written in quatrains with an ABAB rhyme scheme. Here, Brontë's rhyme scheme really stands out, as it gives the poem a distinctively song-like feeling. This musicality helps to reinforce the lighthearted tone that runs through it. The poem captures its speaker's observation of something already fading before her eyes, making her unable to enjoy the moment of summer splendor that is right in front of her. It slowly captures the way in which she works through this internally, and has her point of view changed by the words of a celestial being.
