Memory

Anne Brontë 1820 (Thornton, West Yorkshire) – 1849 (Scarborough, North Yorkshire)



Brightly the sun of summer shone,
Green fields and waving woods upon,
      And soft winds wandered by;
Above, a sky of purest blue,
Around, bright flowers of loveliest hue,
      Allured the gazer's eye.
But what were all these charms to me,
When one sweet breath of memory
      Came gently wafting by?
I closed my eyes against the day,
And called my willing soul away,
      From earth, and air, and sky;

That I might simply fancy there
One little flower -- a primrose fair,
      Just opening into sight;
As in the days of infancy,
An opening primrose seemed to me
      A source of strange delight.

Sweet Memory! ever smile on me;
Nature's chief beauties spring from thee,
      Oh, still thy tribute bring!
Still make the golden crocus shine
Among the flowers the most divine,
      The glory of the spring.

Still in the wall-flower's fragrance dwell;
And hover round the slight blue bell,
      My childhood's darling flower.
Smile on the little daisy still,
The buttercup's bright goblet fill
      With all thy former power.

For ever hang thy dreamy spell
Round mountain star and heather bell,
      And do not pass away
From sparkling frost, or wreathed snow,
And whisper when the wild winds blow,
      Or rippling waters play.

Is childhood, then, so all divine?
Or Memory, is the glory thine,
      That haloes thus the past?
Not all divine; its pangs of grief,
(Although, perchance, their stay be brief,)
      Are bitter while they last.

Nor is the glory all thine own,
For on our earliest joys alone
      That holy light is cast.
With such a ray, no spell of thine
Can make our later pleasures shine,
      Though long ago they passed.

Acton

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Submitted on May 13, 2011

Modified on March 05, 2023

1:25 min read
149

Quick analysis:

Scheme AXBCCBDDBEEB FFGDDG DDHIIH JJKLLK JJEMME IINOON AANIIN
Closest metre Iambic tetrameter
Characters 1,624
Words 281
Stanzas 7
Stanza Lengths 12, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6, 6

Anne Brontë

Anne Brontë was a British novelist and poet, the youngest member of the Brontë literary family. more…

All Anne Brontë poems | Anne Brontë Books

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