POEMS

BY

CURRER, ELLIS, AND ACTON

BELL

LONDON:

AYLOTT AND JONES, 8, PATERNOSTER-ROW.

1846.

CONTENTS ^*

	Pilate's Wife's Dream	1
	Faith and Despondency	8
	A Reminiscence	10
	Mementos	11
	Stars	21
	The Philosopher	23
	The Arbour	26
	Home	27
	The Wife's Will	28
	Remembrance	31
	Vanitas Vanitatum, Omnia Vanitas	33
	The Wood	35
	A Death Scene	40
	Song	43
	The Penitent	44
	Music on Christmas Morning	45
	Frances	46
	Anticipation	56
	Stanzas	59
	Gilbert	60
	The Prisoner	76
	If this be all	80
	Life	81
	Hope	82
	Memory	83

[Page iv]

	The Letter	86
	A Day-Dream	89
	To Cowper	92
	Regret	94
	To Imagination	96
	The Doubter's Prayer	97
	Presentiment	100
	How clear she shines	103
	A Word to the Elect	104
	The Teacher's Monologue	107
	Sympathy	110
	Past Days	111
	Passion	112
	Preference	115
	Plead for Me	118
	The Consolation	120
	Evening Solace	121
	Self-Interrogation	123
	Lines composed in a Wood on a Windy Day	125
	Stanzas	126
	Death	128
	Views of Life	129
	Parting	137
	Stanzas to –	138
	Appeal	140
	Honour's Martyr	148
	The Student's Life	140
	Apostasy	145
	Stanzas	148
	The Captive Dove	149
	Winter Stores	151
	My Comforter	153
	Self-Congratulation	155
	The Missionary	157
	The Old Stoic	163
	Fluctuations	164

Provenance of the Text.

The Poems of Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell were originally published by Aylott & Jones of London, in 1846, at the authors' expense. Unsold copies of the first edition were bought, re-covered and re-released by Smith, Elder, in 1848, with a new title page.

The title page, table of contents, and poems of the on-line edition are reproduced from the 1846 edition. Icons have been added to the Table of Contents to identify the author of each poem:
Anne Brontë
Charlotte Brontë
Emily Brontë

Capitalization, spelling, and diacriticals from the original text have been reproduced. The beginning of each page is noted as [Page xx]. Errata which were listed on a frontpage of the original edition are included here on the appropriate pages. Any accompanying notes have been added by Mary Mark Ockerbloom, and are not part of the original text. To see a sample of the original copytext, view this scanned Sample Page.

For those not familiar with the Brontë sisters' poetry, it should be noted that many of their poems were written in the context of the shared worlds of Gondal and Angria. Other poems were personal and biographical. In selecting and editing their poems for publication, the Bronte sisters deleted and revised references to their imaginary countries. The versions of the poems that were printed, and their titles, differ considerably in some cases from the original manuscript forms.