Cold in the earth—and the deep snow piled above thee,
The opening line presents the central conceit of the poem. The speaker is addressing her lover and he is dead. Beginning here effectively situates the reader in the narrative of the text. At the same time, it immediately provides a bleak summary of the speaker's current situation: she is grieving her dead lover. The use of the word "cold" and the inclusion of the image of "deep snow" implies that this death occurred some time ago. It also suggests that the season in which the poem is taking place is wintertime. Brontë packs a great deal of information into this relatively small space, right away.
Cold in the earth—and fifteen wild Decembers,
From those brown hills, have melted into spring:
These lines highlight the passage of time between the speaker's most recent visit to her lover's grave and his death. She quickly glosses the changing of the scenes with images of "brown hills" that "have melted into spring" and the elapse of "fifteen wild Decembers." This simultaneously demonstrates the intensity of her passion and the length of time that she has been without her lover. Emphasizing this amount of time is essential to the rest of the poem as it touches on its central question: how long should the speaker go on holding onto her painful memory of the blissful past?
All my life’s bliss from thy dear life was given,
All my life’s bliss is in the grave with thee.
These lines make clear how lost the speaker feels without her beloved. She is painfully and intensely describing the emptiness of the life she has been left with. She is stating not only that she is suffering without her lover, but that her life after his death has barely been experienced. She feels she is as a husk of her former self, unable to experience any of the joy from her past life. In her view, not only did her beloved die, but her happiness died with him. These lines point to the power of the emotions that she feels about this.
