Collection of poems : autograph manuscript signed : [Haworth]
The Henry Houston Bonnell Brontë Collection. Bequest of Helen Safford Bonnell, 1969
On every stat[e]ly tree,
And long before they die away,
He will return to me!” —
Alas! Fair Lady say not so,
Thou canst not tell the weight of wo,
That lies in store for thee.
5
Those flowers will fade, those leaves will fall,
Winter will darken yonder hall,
Sweet Spring will smile o’er hill and plain,
And trees and flowers will bloom again,
And years will still keep rolling on,
But thy beloved lord is gone.
His absence thou shalt deeply mourn,
And never smile on his return.
63 lines –––––––– July 9 1838
“The Parting” (pp. 5–8)
Composed 9 July 1838, when Brontë was eighteen. Written in the voice of Alexandrina Zenobia. First published in Poems (1902), pp. 189–91. Poem 6 in Chitham (1979); pp. 457–59 in Alexander (2010).