Speak of the North, a Lonely Moor: Poems of Charlotte, Emily, Anne and Branwell Brontë

SPEAK OF THE NORTH, A LONELY MOOR

Poems of Charlotte, Emily, Anne and Branwell Brontë

Compiled by

Rebecca Hillary

© 2015 by Rebecca Hillary

ISBN: 978-1-326-41197-8

FOREWORD

It is hard, in an age where anyone has the means to self-publish their own written works, to believe that perhaps the three best-known sisters of the literary world were forced to publish under masculine names, as it was not considered becoming of a lady to consider herself a writer.

Charlotte wrote to then Poet Laureate, Robert Southey to submit several poems, and he replied, discouragingly, suggesting that the realm of poetry was a man’s world, and not something that should be considered as an occupation for women. This was a typical prejudice of the time, and likely an unsurprising response for Charlotte. She remained undeterred however, using the event to come upon the idea of publishing poetry as a joint endeavour with her sisters under male pseudonyms. The result was Poems by Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell, published in 1846 by Aylott and Jones.

Averse to personal publicity, we veiled our own names under those of Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell; the ambiguous choice being dictated by a sort of conscientious scruple at assuming Christian names positively masculine, while we did not like to declare ourselves women, because— without at that time suspecting that our mode of writing and thinking was not what is called feminine– we had a vague impression that authoresses are liable to be looked on with prejudice; we had noticed how critics sometimes use for their chastisement the weapon of personality, and for their reward, a flattery, which is not true praise.

Biographical Notice of Ellis and Acton Bell, from the preface of the 1910 edition of Wuthering Heights

Speak of the North, a Lonely Moor is a collection of the poems of not only the Brontë sisters, but also of their brother, Branwell, with whom they wrote as children.

The title itself comes from a poem by Charlotte, a beautiful and haunting ode to the land they called home - and which I am proud to call mine - the glorious county of Yorkshire.

Rebecca Hillary

CHARLOTTE BRONTË (1816-1855)

Writing under the pseudonym Currer Bell, Charlotte published the novels Jane Eyre (1847), Shirley (1849), Vilette (1853) and The Professor (1857).

Apostasy

This last denial of my faith,

Thou, solemn Priest, hast heard;

And, though upon my bed of death,

I call not back a word.

Point not to thy Madonna, Priest,

Thy sightless saint of stone;

She cannot, from this burning breast,

Wring one repentant moan.

Thou say'st, that when a sinless child,

I duly bent the knee,

And prayed to what in marble smiled

Cold, lifeless, mute, on me.

I did. But listen! Children spring

Full soon to riper youth;

And, for Love's vow and Wedlock's ring,

I sold my early truth.

'Twas not a grey, bare head, like thine,

Bent o'er me, when I said,

"That land and God and Faith are mine,

For which thy fathers bled."

I see thee not, my eyes are dim;

But well I hear thee say,

"O daughter cease to think of him

Who led thy soul astray.

"Between you lies both space and time;

Let leagues and years prevail

To turn thee from the path of crime,

Back to the Church's pale."

And, did I need that, thou shouldst tell

What mighty barriers rise

To part me from that dungeon-cell,

Where my loved Walter lies?

And, did I need that thou shouldst taunt

My dying hour at last,

By bidding this worn spirit pant

No more for what is past?

Priest, MUST I cease to think of him?

How hollow rings that word!

Can time, can tears, can distance dim

The memory of my lord?

I said before, I saw not thee,

Because, an hour agone,

Over my eyeballs, heavily,

The lids fell down like stone.

But still my spirit's inward sight

Beholds his image beam

As fixed, as clear, as burning bright,

As some red planet's gleam.

Talk not of thy Last Sacrament,

Tell not thy beads for me;

Both rite and prayer are vainly spent,

As dews upon the sea.

Speak not one word of Heaven above,

Rave not of Hell's alarms;

Give me but back my Walter's love,

Restore me to his arms!

Then will the bliss of Heaven be won;

Then will Hell shrink away,

As I have seen night's terrors shun

The conquering steps of day.

'Tis my religion thus to love,

My creed thus fixed to be;

Not Death shall shake, nor Priestcraft break

My rock-like constancy!

Now go; for at the door there waits

Another stranger guest;

He calls, I come, my pulse scarce beats,

My heart fails in my breast.

Again that voice, how far away,

How dreary sounds that tone!

And I, methinks, am gone astray

In trackless wastes and lone.

I fain would rest a little while:

Where can I find a stay,

Till dawn upon the hills shall smile,

And show some trodden way?

I come! I come! in haste she said,

'Twas Walter's voice I heard!

Then up she sprang, but fell back, dead,

His name her latest word.

Evening Solace

The human heart has hidden treasures,

In secret kept, in silence sealed;

The thoughts, the hopes, the dreams, the pleasures,

Whose charms were broken if revealed.

And days may pass in gay confusion,

And nights in rosy riot fly,

While, lost in Fame's or Wealth's illusion,

The memory of the Past may die.

But there are hours of lonely musing,

Such as in evening silence come,

When, soft as birds their pinions closing,

The heart's best feelings gather home.

Then in our souls there seems to languish

A tender grief that is not woe;

And thoughts that once wrung groans of anguish

Now cause but some mild tears to flow.

And feelings, once as strong as passions,

Float softly back, a faded dream;

Our own sharp griefs and wild sensations,

The tale of others' sufferings seem.

Oh! when the heart is freshly bleeding,

How longs it for that time to be,

When, through the mist of years receding,

Its woes but live in reverie!

And it can dwell on moonlight glimmer,

On evening shade and loneliness;

And, while the sky grows dim and dimmer,

Feel no untold and strange distress,

Only a deeper impulse given

By lonely hour and darkened room,

To solemn thoughts that soar to heaven

Seeking a life and world to come.

Frances

She will not sleep, for fear of dreams,

But, rising, quits her restless bed,

And walks where some beclouded beams

Of moonlight through the hall are shed.

Obedient to the goad of grief,

Her steps, now fast, now lingering slow,

In varying motion seek relief

From the Eumenides of woe.

Wringing her hands, at intervals,

But long as mute as phantom dim,

She glides along the dusky walls,

Under the black oak rafters grim.

The close air of the grated tower

Stifles a heart that scarce can beat,

And, though so late and lone the hour,

Forth pass her wandering, faltering feet;

And on the pavement spread before

The long front of the mansion grey,

Her steps imprint the night-frost hoar,

Which pale on grass and granite lay.

Not long she stayed where misty moon

And shimmering stars could on her look,

But through the garden archway soon

Her strange and gloomy path she took.

Some firs, coeval with the tower,

Their straight black boughs stretched o'er her head;

Unseen, beneath this sable bower,

Rustled her dress and rapid tread.

There was an alcove in that shade,

Screening a rustic seat and stand;

Weary she sat her down, and laid

Her hot brow on her burning hand.

To solitude and to the night,

Some words she now, in murmurs, said;

And trickling through her fingers white,

Some tears of misery she shed.

"God help me in my grievous need,

God help me in my inward pain;

Which cannot ask for pity's meed,

Which has no licence to complain,

"Which must be borne; yet who can bear,

Hours long, days long, a constant weight,

The yoke of absolute despair,

A suffering wholly desolate?

"Who can for ever crush the heart,

Restrain its throbbing, curb its life?

Dissemble truth with ceaseless art,

With outward calm mask inward strife?"

She waited, as for some reply;

The still and cloudy night gave none;

Ere long, with deep-drawn, trembling sigh,

Her heavy plaint again begun.

"Unloved, I love; unwept, I weep;

Grief I restrain, hope I repress:

Vain is this anguish, fixed and deep;

Vainer, desires and dreams of bliss.

"My love awakes no love again,

My tears collect, and fall unfelt;

My sorrow touches none with pain,

My humble hopes to nothing melt.

"For me the universe is dumb,

Stone-deaf, and blank, and wholly blind;

Life I must bound, existence sum

In the strait limits of one mind;

"That mind my own. Oh! narrow cell;

Dark, imageless, a living tomb!

There must I sleep, there wake and dwell

Content, with palsy, pain, and gloom."

Again she paused; a moan of pain,

A stifled sob, alone was heard;

Long silence followed, then again

Her voice the stagnant midnight stirred.

"Must it be so? Is this my fate?

Can I nor struggle, nor contend?

And am I doomed for years to wait,

Watching death's lingering axe descend?

"And when it falls, and when I die,

What follows? Vacant nothingness?

The blank of lost identity?

Erasure both of pain and bliss?

"I've heard of heaven, I would believe;

For if this earth indeed be all,

Who longest lives may deepest grieve;

Most blest, whom sorrows soonest call.

"Oh! leaving disappointment here,

Will man find hope on yonder coast?

Hope, which, on earth, shines never clear,

And oft in clouds is wholly lost.

"Will he hope's source of light behold,

Fruition's spring, where doubts expire,

And drink, in waves of living gold,

Contentment, full, for long desire?

"Will he find bliss, which here he dreamed?

Rest, which was weariness on earth?

Knowledge, which, if o'er life it beamed,

Served but to prove it void of worth?

"Will he find love without lust's leaven,

Love fearless, tearless, perfect, pure,

To all with equal bounty given;

In all, unfeigned, unfailing, sure?

"Will he, from penal sufferings free,

Released from shroud and wormy clod,

All calm and glorious, rise and see

Creation's Sire, Existence' God?

"Then, glancing back on Time's brief woes,

Will he behold them, fading, fly;

Swept from Eternity's repose,

Like sullying cloud from pure blue sky?

"If so, endure, my weary frame;

And when thy anguish strikes too deep,

And when all troubled burns life's flame,

Think of the quiet, final sleep;

"Think of the glorious waking-hour,

Which will not dawn on grief and tears,

But on a ransomed spirit's power,

Certain, and free from mortal fears.

"Seek now thy couch, and lie till morn,

Then from thy chamber, calm, descend,

With mind nor tossed, nor anguish-torn,

But tranquil, fixed, to wait the end.

"And when thy opening eyes shall see

Mementos, on the chamber wall,

Of one who has forgotten thee,

Shed not the tear of acrid gall.

"The tear which, welling from the heart,

Burns where its drop corrosive falls,

And makes each nerve, in torture, start,

At feelings it too well recalls:

"When the sweet hope of being loved

Threw Eden sunshine on life's way:

When every sense and feeling proved

Expectancy of brightest day.

"When the hand trembled to receive

A thrilling clasp, which seemed so near,

And the heart ventured to believe

Another heart esteemed it dear.

"When words, half love, all tenderness,

Were hourly heard, as hourly spoken,

When the long, sunny days of bliss

Only by moonlight nights were broken.

"Till, drop by drop, the cup of joy

Filled full, with purple light was glowing,

And Faith, which watched it, sparkling high

Still never dreamt the overflowing.

"It fell not with a sudden crashing,

It poured not out like open sluice;

No, sparkling still, and redly flashing,

Drained, drop by drop, the generous juice.

"I saw it sink, and strove to taste it,

My eager lips approached the brim;

The movement only seemed to waste it;

It sank to dregs, all harsh and dim.

"These I have drunk, and they for ever

Have poisoned life and love for me;

A draught from Sodom's lake could never

More fiery, salt, and bitter, be.

"Oh! Love was all a thin illusion

Joy, but the desert's flying stream;

And glancing back on long delusion,

My memory grasps a hollow dream.

"Yet whence that wondrous change of feeling,

I never knew, and cannot learn;

Nor why my lover's eye, congealing,

Grew cold and clouded, proud and stern.

"Nor wherefore, friendship's forms forgetting,

He careless left, and cool withdrew;

Nor spoke of grief, nor fond regretting,

Nor ev'n one glance of comfort threw.

"And neither word nor token sending,

Of kindness, since the parting day,

His course, for distant regions bending,

Went, self-contained and calm, away.

"Oh, bitter, blighting, keen sensation,

Which will not weaken, cannot die,

Hasten thy work of desolation,

And let my tortured spirit fly!

"Vain as the passing gale, my crying;

Though lightning-struck, I must live on;

I know, at heart, there is no dying

Of love, and ruined hope, alone.

"Still strong and young, and warm with vigour,

Though scathed, I long shall greenly grow;

And many a storm of wildest rigour

Shall yet break o'er my shivered bough.

"Rebellious now to blank inertion,

My unused strength demands a task;

Travel, and toil, and full exertion,

Are the last, only boon I ask.

"Whence, then, this vain and barren dreaming

Of death, and dubious life to come?

I see a nearer beacon gleaming

Over dejection's sea of gloom.

"The very wildness of my sorrow

Tells me I yet have innate force;

My track of life has been too narrow,

Effort shall trace a broader course.

"The world is not in yonder tower,

Earth is not prisoned in that room,

'Mid whose dark panels, hour by hour,

I've sat, the slave and prey of gloom.

"One feeling, turned to utter anguish,

Is not my being's only aim;

When, lorn and loveless, life will languish,

But courage can revive the flame.

"He, when he left me, went a roving

To sunny climes, beyond the sea;

And I, the weight of woe removing,

Am free and fetterless as he.

"New scenes, new language, skies less clouded,

May once more wake the wish to live;

Strange, foreign towns, astir, and crowded,

New pictures to the mind may give.

"New forms and faces, passing ever,

May hide the one I still retain,

Defined, and fixed, and fading never,

Stamped deep on vision, heart, and brain.

"And we might meet, time may have changed him;

Chance may reveal the mystery,

The secret influence which estranged him;

Love may restore him yet to me.

"False thought, false hope, in scorn be banished!

I am not loved, nor loved have been;

Recall not, then, the dreams scarce vanished;

Traitors! mislead me not again!

"To words like yours I bid defiance,

'Tis such my mental wreck have made;

Of God alone, and self-reliance,

I ask for solace, hope for aid.

"Morn comes, and ere meridian glory

O'er these, my natal woods, shall smile,

Both lonely wood and mansion hoary

I'll leave behind, full many a mile."

Gilbert

I. The Garden.

Above the city hung the moon,

Right o'er a plot of ground

Where flowers and orchard-trees were fenced

With lofty walls around:

'Twas Gilbert's garden, there to-night

Awhile he walked alone;

And, tired with sedentary toil,

Mused where the moonlight shone.

This garden, in a city-heart,

Lay still as houseless wild,

Though many-windowed mansion fronts

Were round it; closely piled;

But thick their walls, and those within

Lived lives by noise unstirred;

Like wafting of an angel's wing,

Time's flight by them was heard.

Some soft piano-notes alone

Were sweet as faintly given,

Where ladies, doubtless, cheered the hearth

With song that winter-even.

The city's many-mingled sounds

Rose like the hum of ocean;

They rather lulled the heart than roused

Its pulse to faster motion.

Gilbert has paced the single walk

An hour, yet is not weary;

And, though it be a winter night

He feels nor cold nor dreary.

The prime of life