Poems

Poems – is a collection of poems which was published in 1902 and written by famous sisters Brontë: Emily, Charlotte and Anne. The Bronte sisters published anonymously, in 1846, a little volume of verse with the title "Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell." This was only a small part of the manuscripts, and much remains. After the deaths of her sisters Emily and Anna, Charlotte Brontë revised her novels Wuthering Heights and Agnes Gray for a second edition in 1850. Charlotte has included in this edition several poems selected from their manuscripts. The heightened interest in Brontë and their work would in itself be sufficient justification for printing this limited edition of these attempts at poetry. The poems have been deciphered with some difficulty from the original manuscripts. Anna's poems and some of Emily's poems are written in the usual, quite legible handwriting, signed and dated, having, in addition to her own name, usually one of the fictitious names: Alexandrina Zenobia, Olivia Vernon or Zerona. All of Charlotte's and a few of Emily's verses which are here printed are written on little scraps of paper of various sizes, in minute angular characters, almost illegible, without punctuation, and the spelling often at fault. The effort has been made to print them here exactly as they were written, without attempt at correction. Those of Charlotte's are generally signed and dated at the bottom, most of them having been written at the age of thirteen. Some of Emily's poems are signed or initialed and dated at the top. With others, only the date is given.