Analysis of No Coward Soul is Mine

Stanza One

The speaker begins this piece by making clear to the audience that her soul is untroubled. It is not
cowardly, nor does it “tremble” at the troubles of the world. There is nothing in the world, she claims,
no matter how awful, that could shake the foundations of her soul.In the next two lines the reader is
provided with the reasoning behind this assertion. She has her faith in God, she sees “Heaven’s glories
shine” and is protected from everything. The power of Heaven is a part of her and it arms her from
“Fear.” It is the only weapon, or defense, that she needs to make her way through her life.

Stanza Two

The next stanzas are spoken directly to God. She is praising “Him” while also explaining to the reader
that the “Almighty,” omni, or “ever-present” force of Him within her is what is giving her the confidence
to face the world. He has provided her with “Life” and that life within her is a representation of God’s
“Undying Life.”

Stanza Three

While the speaker’s heart might be pure and full of God, other people’s hearts are not so well
protected.The speaker is meditating on all the endless things that “move men’s hearts.” They are moved
by “creeds” that are “unutterably vain.” She is speaking of all the human wants that drive men and
women forward from money to a love that is not for God. She condemns these types of people. She
feels utter contempt for how they live their lives and their faith, if they have any, in God. The speaker
refers to those that are not as strong as she is as being “Vain.” These people might give into the
temptations of the world, but she would never do that. The next lines continue into stanza four. One
must complete the phrase to the end, to understand the beginning. The speaker is saying that she is so
steadfast in her morality and faith that any doubt that might be present is “Worthless as withered
weeds” in the “boundless” and endlessly powerful ocean. If they are present, they are unable to
influence her. Just as “idlest froth” in the ocean has no impact on the currents.

Stanza Four

She is the one to whom she refers in this first line. It is her faith that is impenetrable and without room
for doubt. The speaker is the way she is because she is “Holding so fast” and is “surely anchored” on the
rock that is “Immortality.” She has her mind set on God and heaven and there is nothing she would do
to jeopardize that.

Stanza Five

The “spirit” of God that is present in the world is all powerful. It is like a “wide-embracing love” that
“Pervades” through all the years of life. It might change form, or create” or “rear,” but it is always there.

Stanza Six

In the second to last quatrain of the poem the speaker proposes a future in which every part of our
known world has vanished. There is no Earth, or Moon, and neither are there “suns and universes.” All
of these bodies have “ceased to be” but God has not. His “Existence” would hold all that was lost.

Stanza Seven

The speaker concludes the poem by once more speaking of her lack of fear about death. She makes
clear to the reader that there is “not room for Death” in her world. Death has no power over her and
there is no “atom” of his “might” that would touch God’s power. God consumes everything and
everyone, from every “Being” to every “Breath.” He can never be destroyed, even by something as
seemingly powerful as “Death.”

About Emily Brontë

Emily Brontë was born in Thornton, Yorkshire, England in July of 1818. She was the fifth child born to the
Brontës, and in 1821, her mother passed away from cancer. Her two oldest sisters, Elizabeth and Maria
would die only four years later of tuberculosis, a disease that would haunt her family.

Emily Brontë spent most of her time in her home at Haworth where she explored her passion for
writing. She would go on to publish Wuthering Heights, and her sisters, Charlotte and Anne, with whom
she shared sibling pen names, would publish Jane Eyre and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. While
Wuthering Heights did not receive any kind of critical praise when it was published, it is now considered
on of the greatest novels of all time.

Emily died in 1848 of tuberculosis and her sister, Anne, would pass away of the same disease only one
year later. Last was Charlotte, who died six years later of pneumonia.