Victorian Verse - The House was Still - Charlotte Bronte

This too is a fragment.  The response of the canary to the wild bird is lost.  Given the publication date, it seems likely that this poem has been retrieved from manuscripts and published as part of a collected works.

Notice the same technique, as in “Autumn …”, of repetition and the setting in a quiet house disturbed by an event that intrudes on the inner life of the house and links it to the outside world.  This could reflect the Brontes’ feeling of enclosure and isolation in the parsonage in Haworth.  This would suggest that Charlotte is identifying with the “prisoner” in the cage, whose view of the world is limited by the confines of its cage-bars, but knows there is a world out there, as it can feel the sun, to which it responds. 

The fragment is in ballad metre. 

Although it is so short, the scene is intensely realised in the detail of the time of year, the time of day and the positioning of the two birds on either side of the window – one singing out, the other singing in.  It is “that lilac bush” not “a” or “the”, suggesting that this is written from an actual happening.  The moment of anticipation of an answering call is conveyed by the use of the hyphen after “long – “and again after “word – “.

The house was still — the room was still 
'Twas eventide in June 
A caged canary to the sun 
Then setting — trilled a tune 

A free bird on that lilac bush 
Outside the lattice heard 
He listened long — there came a hush 
He dropped an answering word — 

The prisoner to the free replied