Page:Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell (Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë, 1846).djvu/18

Rh FAITH AND DESPONDENCY.

" winter wind is loud and wild,

Come close to me, my darling child;

Forsake thy books, and mateless play;

And, while the night is gathering grey,

We'll talk its pensive hours away;—

"Iernë, round our sheltered hall

November's gusts unheeded call;

Not one faint breath can enter here

Enough to wave my daughter's hair,

And I am glad to watch the blaze

Glance from her eyes, with mimic rays;

To feel her cheek, so softly pressed,

In happy quiet on my breast.

"But, yet, even this tranquillity

Brings bitter, restless thoughts to me;

And, in the red fire's cheerful glow,

I think of deep glens, blocked with snow;

I dream of moor, and misty hill,

Where evening closes dark and chill;

For, lone, among the mountains cold,

Lie those that I have loved of old.

And my heart aches, in hopeless pain

Exhausted with repinings vain,

That I shall greet them ne'er again!"