Collection of poems : autograph manuscript signed : [Haworth]
The Henry Houston Bonnell Brontë Collection. Bequest of Helen Safford Bonnell, 1969
My wandering glances fell
Upon a little trembling flower
A single sweet bluebell.
Whence came that rising in my throat
That dimness in my eyes*?
Why did those burning drops distill –
Those bitter feelings rise?
O that Bluebell lone flower recalled to me
My happy child-hood’s hours
When blue bells were a seemed like fairy gifts
A prize among the flowers
Those sunny days of merriment
When heart and soul were free
And when I dwelt with kindred hearts
That loved and cared for me
*Note: Chitham (1979) transcribes the starred word as “eye,” but the manuscript reads “eyes.”
“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).