Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

Plan your visit. 225 Madison Avenue at 36th Street, New York, NY 10016.

015. "The Bluebell", p. 15

Anne Brontë
1820–1849

Collection of poems : autograph manuscript signed : [Haworth]

1838 Jan. 24-1841 Aug. 19
MA 2696.5

The Henry Houston Bonnell Brontë Collection. Bequest of Helen Safford Bonnell, 1969

Transcription

But though thy Father loves me not,
Yet I shall still be loved by thee,
And though I am by him forgot,
Say wilt not thou remember me?
I will not cause thy heart to ache,
And for thy regreted Father’s sake,
   I’ll love and cherrish thee.

    Alexandrina Zenobia

56 lines Anne Brontë August 21 1838

      The Bluebell

A fine and subtle spirit dwells
In every little flower,
Each one its own sweet feeling breathes
With more or less of power.

There is a silent eloquence,
In every wild bluebell,
That fills my softened heart with bliss,
That words could never tell

Yet I recall not long ago,

“Verses to a Child” (pp. 12–15)

Composed 21 August 1838, when Brontë was eighteen. Written in the voice of Alexandrina Zenobia. First published in Poems (1902), pp. 195–97. Poem 8 in Chitham (1979); pp. 461–63 in Alexander (2010).

“The Bluebell” (pp. 15–18)

Composed 22 August 1840, when Brontë was twenty. First published in Poems (1902), pp. 198–200. Poem 10 in Chitham (1979).