Dec 14, 2012

Poetry by the Bronte Sisters


Anne Bronte:

LINES COMPOSED IN A WOOD ON A WINDY DAY
by: Anne Bronte (1820-1849)
MY soul is awakened, my spirit is soaring
And carried aloft on the wings of the breeze;
For above and around me the wild wind is roaring,
Arousing to rapture the earth and the seas.

The long withered grass in the sunshine is glancing,
The bare trees are tossing their branches on high;
The dead leaves beneath them are merrily dancing,
The white clouds are scudding across the blue sky

I wish I could see how the ocean is lashing
The foam of its billows to whirlwinds of spray;
I wish I could see how its proud waves are dashing,
And hear the wild roar of their thunder to-day!
"Lines Composed in a Wood on a Windy Day" is reprinted from Poems By Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell. Charlotte, Anne, and Emily Bronte. Philadelphia: Lea and Blanchard, 1848.
Anne Bronte (died age 29) 

Anne Brontë (/ˈbrɒnti/;[1][2] 17 January 1820 – 28 May 1849) was a British novelist and poet, the youngest member of the Brontë literary family.
The daughter of a poor Irish clergyman in the Church of England, Anne Brontë lived most of her life with her family at the parish of Haworth on the Yorkshire moors. For a couple of years she went to a boarding school. At the age of 19 she left Haworth and worked as a governess between 1839 and 1845. After leaving her teaching position, she fulfilled her literary ambitions. She wrote a volume of poetry with her sisters (Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell, 1846) and two novels. Agnes Grey, based upon her experiences as a governess, was published in 1847. Her second and last novel, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, which is considered to be one of the first sustained feminist novels, appeared in 1848. Anne's life was cut short when she died of pulmonary tuberculosis at the age of 29.

THE ARBOUR
by: Anne Bronte (1820-1849)
    'LL rest me in this sheltered bower,
    And look upon the clear blue sky
    That smiles upon me through the trees,
    Which stand so thick clustering by;

    And view their green and glossy leaves,
    All glistening in the sunshine fair;
    And list the rustling of their boughs,
    So softly whispering through the air.

    And while my ear drinks in the sound,
    My winged soul shall fly away;
    Reviewing lone departed years
    As one mild, beaming, autumn day;

    And soaring on to future scenes,
    Like hills and woods, and valleys green,
    All basking in the summer's sun,
    But distant still, and dimly seen.

    Oh, list! 'tis summer's very breath
    That gently shakes the rustling trees--
    But look! the snow is on the ground--
    How can I think of scenes like these?

    'Tis but the FROST that clears the air,
    And gives the sky that lovely blue;
    They're smiling in a WINTER'S sun,
    Those evergreens of sombre hue.

    And winter's chill is on my heart--
    How can I dream of future bliss?
    How can my spirit soar away,
    Confined by such a chain as this?

"The Arbour" is reprinted from Poems By Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell. Charlotte, Anne, and Emily Bronte. Philadelphia: Lea and Blanchard, 1848.


MORe

MUSIC ON CHRISTMAS MORNING
by: Anne Bronte (1820-1849)
      USIC I love--but never strain
      Could kindle raptures so divine,
      So grief assuage, so conquer pain,
      And rouse this pensive heart of mine--
      As that we hear on Christmas morn,
      Upon the wintry breezes borne.

      Though Darkness still her empire keep,
      And hours must pass, ere morning break;
      From troubled dreams, or slumbers deep,
      That music KINDLY bids us wake:
      It calls us, with an angel's voice,
      To wake, and worship, and rejoice;

      To greet with joy the glorious morn,
      Which angels welcomed long ago,
      When our redeeming Lord was born,
      To bring the light of Heaven below;
      The Powers of Darkness to dispel,
      And rescue Earth from Death and Hell.

      While listening to that sacred strain,
      My raptured spirit soars on high;
      I seem to hear those songs again
      Resounding through the open sky,
      That kindled such divine delight,
      In those who watched their flocks by night.

      With them I celebrate His birth--
      Glory to God, in highest Heaven,
      Good-will to men, and peace on earth,
      To us a Saviour-king is given;
      Our God is come to claim His own,
      And Satan's power is overthrown!

      A sinless God, for sinful men,
      Descends to suffer and to bleed;
      Hell MUST renounce its empire then;
      The price is paid, the world is freed,
      And Satan's self must now confess
      That Christ has earned a RIGHT to bless:

      Now holy Peace may smile from heaven,
      And heavenly Truth from earth shall spring:
      The captive's galling bonds are riven,
      For our Redeemer is our king;
      And He that gave his blood for men
      Will lead us home to God again.
by: Anne Bronte (1820-1849)
    'LL rest me in this sheltered bower,
    And look upon the clear blue sky
    That smiles upon me through the trees,
    Which stand so thick clustering by;

    And view their green and glossy leaves,
    All glistening in the sunshine fair;
    And list the rustling of their boughs,
    So softly whispering through the air.

    And while my ear drinks in the sound,
    My winged soul shall fly away;
    Reviewing lone departed years
    As one mild, beaming, autumn day;

    And soaring on to future scenes,
    Like hills and woods, and valleys green,
    All basking in the summer's sun,
    But distant still, and dimly seen.

    Oh, list! 'tis summer's very breath
    That gently shakes the rustling trees--
    But look! the snow is on the ground--
    How can I think of scenes like these?

    'Tis but the FROST that clears the air,
    And gives the sky that lovely blue;
    They're smiling in a WINTER'S sun,
    Those evergreens of sombre hue.

    And winter's chill is on my heart--
    How can I dream of future bliss?
    How can my spirit soar away,rer, Ellis, and Acton Bell. Charlotte, Anne, and Emily Bronte. Philadelphia: Lea and Blanchard, 1848.
    Confined by such a chain as this?

"The Arbour" is reprinted from Poems By Cur