Summary
The poem begins with the description of a woman whose beauty has been diminished by time and neglect. Then the speaker comments that vestiges of her former appearance are still apparent. The last stanza depicts this woman, many years prior, writing a letter to a lover.
Analysis
"Long Neglect Has Worn Away" is a poem about the passage of time and the slow degradation caused by neglect. Brontë shows her subject suffering from the loss of her beauty and joy, following a long period of apparent abandonment. It is a poem that deals with the nature of decay, both in its effects on an individual and its various sources. The poem is written in four quatrains with an ABAB rhyme scheme, the form of almost all of Brontë's work. This structure effectively breaks each stanza into a self-contained observation. She makes occasional use of both alliteration and assonance, giving the poem a smooth rhythm.
In the first stanza, the speaker shares two images of the subject's faded appearance. The first situates the main themes of the poem: "Long neglect has worn away / Half the sweet enchanting smile." These lines imply that both emotional "neglect" and time ("long") have caused this diminishing of the subject's beauty. Additionally, the description of "half" of her "sweet enchanting smile" suggests that this wearing away is emotional as well as physical. The speaker seems to be saying that this woman has not only lost some of her fair features, but also her joy. The next image is harsher: "Time has turned the bloom to gray; / Mold and damp the face defile." The speaker compares this woman's beauty to a flower whose "bloom" has turned to "gray." The use of the words "mold" and "damp" to describe the decay of her face make it clear that her appearance is in a state of ruin. This discomforting opening sets up the rest of the poem, as it shows the main character suffering the effects of aging and deterioration.
In the next section, the speaker describes the traces of this woman's former allure: "But that lock of silky hair, / Still beneath the picture twined, / Tells what once those features were." She is saying that her current appearance carries the suggestion of her former beauty. The phrase "silky hair" immediately begins to shift the image of the subject in that direction, contrasting with earlier descriptions of her physical attrition. The last line of the stanza ("Paints their image on the mind") reveals that these vestiges of her appearance actually give a clear portrait of what the woman used to look like. The particular sadness of these lines is that they highlight how much this woman has lost over time. The fact that her current physical form allows the viewer to envision how she used to appear only further builds an impression of her loss.
In the final stanza, the poem jumps backward in time. The speaker shows the main character writing what appears to be a love letter: "Fair the hand that traced that line, / 'Dearest, ever deem me true';" Without clearly stating the exact circumstances, she places this scene of the woman in the past as she references the "fair" quality of her hands. There is an unfortunate irony to the line that she writes, as it suggests that she thinks she will be able to hold onto both her physical beauty and her "dearest" lover. These lines explain, in part, the "neglect" that the speaker was referring to in the opening of the poem. The main character seems to have lost this beloved figure in her life. The last lines of the stanza ("Swiftly flew the fingers fine / When the pen that motto drew") reveal the haste with which this woman wrote, and further depict her former beauty. The importance of noting her lack of hesitation is that it reveals the confidence with which she believed in a relationship that did not, in fact, turn out well. This faith is shown to be particularly unfortunate in light of her diminished state at the time the poem describes.
As a whole, the poem is a statement about how time and regret do harm to the individual. The subject suffers the end of a romantic relationship, and slowly the years cause the degradation of her emotional well-being and physical appearance. As the opening of the text makes apparent, the combination of these things can easily cause the erosion of even the most beautiful smile.
