Collection of poems : autograph manuscript signed : [Haworth]
The Henry Houston Bonnell Brontë Collection. Bequest of Helen Safford Bonnell, 1969
“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).
But human love too soon decays,
And ours can never bloom again.
I never thought to see the day,
When his [?] Florian’s friendship would decay,
Like that of colder men.
6
Now Mary Flora thou hast but begun
To sail on life’s deceitful sea,
O do not err as I have done,
For I have trusted foolishly,
The faith of every friend I loved,
I never doubted till I proved
Their hearts[’] inconstancy.
7
’Tis mournful to look back upon
Those long departed joys and cares,
And* I will weep since thou alone
Art witness to my streaming tears,
This lingering love will not depart,
I can not banish from my heart,
The friend of childish years,
*Note: Chitham (1979) transcribes the starred word as “But,” but the manuscript reads “And.”
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