About the Poet: Emily Brontë

Emily Brontë was born on July 30^th, 1818, in Yorkshire, England, to an Irish father named Patrick and his English wife Maria. One of six children, Emily and her siblings grew up in a parish overlooking the bleak moors, due to their father being the local minister. Emily is known for her only novel, Wuthering Heights, considered a standard read when studying Romanticism in English literature today.

It is believed Emily and her sisters Anne (author of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall) and Charlotte (author of Jane Eyre) used inspiration from their own lives to weave romance and dark mystery into the stories they created. Their mother Maria died from cancer after giving birth to her last child, Anne, when Emily was only three years old.

One by one, after the death of his wife, Patrick buried all six of his children, most of them dying from Tuberculosis (TB).  After being widowed and left childless, Patrick discovered that the overpacked graveyard next to the parish held infected, decomposing bodies that had seeped into their water supply.

Emily Brontë succumbed to Tuberculosis on December 19, 1848. She was 30 years old. The poem Fall Leaves Fall reflects her excitement for the upcoming winter season.

If you’d like to read more about Emily Brontë check out this article on The History Press.