“To Cowper”, p. 2

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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: 

“To Cowper” (pp. 1–3)

Dated 10 November 1842, when Brontë was twenty-two. The poem is addressed to the English poet William Cowper (1731–1800). First published in Poems (1846). Poem 19 in Chitham (1979).

Transcription: 

But they are gone and now at last at length from earth,
Thy gentle soul from Earth is [has] past,
And in the bosome of its God
Has found its proper sheltering Home at last.

It must be so if for God is love,
And if he answers fervent prayer;
Then surely thou shalt dwell on high,
And I may hope to meet thee there

Is he the source of every good
The spring of light and of purity
Then in thine hours of blackest deepest wo
Surely Thy God so was still with thee?

How else when every hope was fled
Should thy warm heart Couldst thou so fondly cling

Text as published in Poems (1846)

But they are gone; from earth at length
   Thy gentle soul is pass’d,
And in the bosom of its God
   Has found its home at last.

It must be so, if God is love,
   And answers fervent prayer;
Then surely thou shalt dwell on high,
   And I may meet thee there.

Is he the source of every good,
   The spring of purity?
Then in thine hours of deepest woe,
   Thy God was still with thee.

How else, when every hope was fled,
   Couldst thou so fondly cling

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