[Long Neglect Has Worn Away]

By Emily Brontë 1818–1848 Emily Bronte

Long neglect has worn away

Half the sweet enchanting smile;

Time has turned the bloom to gray;

Mold and damp the face defile.

But that lock of silky hair,

Still beneath the picture twined,

Tells what once those features were,

Paints their image on the mind.

Fair the hand that traced that line,

“Dearest, ever deem me true”;

Swiftly flew the fingers fine

When the pen that motto drew.

Source: Norton Anthology of Poetry (W. W. Norton and Company Inc., 2005)

Biography

The only poems by Emily Brontë that were published in her lifetime were included in a slim volume by Brontë and her sisters Charlotte and Anne titled Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell (1846), which sold a mere two copies and received only three unsigned reviews in the months following its publication. The three notices were positive, however, especially with respect to the contributions of Ellis Bell—Emily Brontë. The . . .

Continue reading this biography