“The Consolation”, p. 13

Anne Brontë
1820–1849

To Cowper and other poems : autograph manuscript of 9 poems, signed, 1842–1845

Purchased by Pierpont Morgan, 1900

MA 28
Description: 

“The Captive Dove” (pp. 11–13)

Dated 31 October 1843, but “Mostly written in the spring of 1842,” when Brontë was twenty-two. First published in Poems (1846). Poem 24 in Chitham (1979).

“The Consolation” (pp. 13–16)

Dated 7 November 1843, when Brontë was twenty-three. Written in the voice of Hespera Caverndel, a character in the Gondal saga. First published in Poems (1846). Published in Wuthering Heights and Agnes Grey (London: Smith Elder, 1850) with title “Lines Written from Home” and revisions by Charlotte Brontë. Poem 25 in Chitham (1979); also published in The Brontës: Tales of Glass Town, Angria, and Gondal. Selected Writings, ed. Christine Alexander (Oxford University Press, 2010), pp. 466–67.

Transcription: 

While gazing on her shining full bright eye
Thou mightst forget thy native wood

But thou poor solitary dove
Must make unheard thy joyless moan
The heart by that nature formed to love
Must pine neglected and alone

Mostly written in the spring of 1842 ———
A Brontë Oct 31st 1843

   ————————

   The Consolation

Though bleak these woods, and damp the ground
With fallen leaves so thickly strewn
And cold the wind that wanders round
With wild and melancholy moan

There is a friendly roof, I know
Might shield me from the wintery blast;

Text as published in Poems (1846)

While gazing on her full bright eye,
Thou mightst forget thy native wood.

But thou, poor solitary dove,
Must make, unheard, thy joyless moan;
The heart, that Nature formed to love,
Must pine, neglected, and alone.

   THE CONSOLATION.

Though bleak these woods, and damp the ground
With fallen leaves so thickly strown,
And cold the wind that wanders round
With wild and melancholy moan;

There is a friendly roof, I know,
Might shield me from the wintry blast;

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