Emily Bronte's poetry is wild and beautiful. Ranging between gentle melancholy to fierce pride, her poems successfully capture human emotion. Many of her poems are about, or written from the viewpoint of the inhabitants of, the fictional kingdom of Gondal. Although these are set in an imaginary land, the Gondal poems stand well alongside the more personal verse. This particular volume is valuable because it includes a description and history of the Gondal saga Emily and her sister Anne created. It is often hard, in other collections, to tell which is personal and which is fictional, but here the Gondal poems are listed. This is very useful to those who wish to study this creation of the Bronte imagination. Also useful is the the chronological order of the poems (as far as can be determined), which makes it easy to follow her development as a poet. I recommend it highly.

Few who read Emily Bronte's poems and magnificent novel, Wuthering Heights, can fail to be moved by the sheer power of her language and insight. Though her tragic early death robbed the world of countless literary treasures, EJB's poetry here provides plenty of beautiful poetry (some of it foreshadowing WH) for those who love her to enjoy and study. Read it and savor it.