Sleep not, dream not; this bright day
Will not, cannot last for aye;
Bliss like thine is bought by years
Dark with torment and with tears.

These lines urge wakefulness and emotional sobriety in the face of fleeting happiness. The speaker warns against surrendering to sleep or dream—states associated with illusion or escape—because the “bright day” of present bliss is transient. The central idea is that intense joy is not free: it is “bought by years / Dark with torment and with tears,” suggesting a moral or existential economy in which suffering underwrites rare moments of radiance. In Brontë’s poetic world, such counsel often carries a stark, almost prophetic tone, emphasizing endurance, the costs of passion, and the inevitability of loss that shadows even the most luminous experience.