Anne Brontë's Confidence

590 Words3 Pages
In today’s society, confidence is constantly sought after in many different circumstances. Whether it be confidence in one’s self, faith, or in a situation, having confidence makes all the difference. Anne Brontë composed the poem Confidence on June 1, 1845. Brontë’s profound use of diction, syntax, and tone, help the reader develop a better understanding of what Confidence truly means. Brontë utilized a formal diction throughout this poem. She did so by exploiting words such as “prone”(9), “pardon”(8), and “impart”(26). The word choice presented throughout Confidence is archaic as well because in modern times one does not hear others say phrases such as “Holy and mighty as Thou art;”(7) or “I give myself to Thee;”(22) anymore. Brontë’s decision to use thou, thee, thine, and wilt, allows the reader to infer that this…show more content…
There was not much dialogue written in Confidence, but apostrophes rather, as the narrator is constantly addressing God. As the narrator addresses God she brings a spiritual feeling to the poem and sense of hope. In addition, the syntax creates a better understanding of the message underlying in Brontë’s Confidence. The first two stanzas of the poem open with negative vocabulary, but are immediately followed with a more positive word choice. In the first stanza, Brontë chose to use words that have negative connotations, such as “Oppressed with sin and woe, / A burderned heart I bear, / Opposed by many a mighty foe:”(1-3), followed by “Holy and mighty as Thou art;”(7) with “holy” and “mighty” having a positive connotation on the contrary. In the second stanza, the phrases with negative connotations are “I am weak”(9) and “prone to every sin”(10) followed by “give me strength within”(12) having the positive connotation. There is a constant shift from negative to positive
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    In Anne Brontë’s, Confidence, the theme that is exquisitely expressed throughout is: as long as you have faith in God, you will have confidence. The narrator’s relationship with her God is serving as an example for others while presenting the correlation between faith and confidence. Brontë utilizes characters, action, and structure to emphasize the assertion she has brilliantly made. Brontë develops her ideas as she describes the characters presented throughout the poem: the narrator and God

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