(e)Book – Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell

  (e)Book –  Poems by Currer, Ellis, and Acton Bell

Author:  Charlotte, Emily and Anne Brontë 

Score: 5/10
Year: 1846(original) ;  2014  (this edition) 

Publisher:  Duke Classics 

ISBN 9781620139004/ 978-1-62013-900-4

Pages 184

The Brontë sisters, Charlotte (Currer), Emily (Ellis) and Anne (Acton) initially released this collection of their poems with gender neutral pen-names, to avoid the condescension often directed at women writers during the period. 

I cut this book into 5 portions : first are poems by Charlotte's, then on to Emily's and finally Anne's. When you think you're done, the book adds a selection of additional poems from Ellis and Acton Bell, presented by Currer... First, those of Ellis, but named directly as Emily, notably poems written when she was 16, and secondly, those of Acton, again named Anne in Charlotte's explanations on this additional selection, which includes their very last poems, before they died. 

I found the religiosity of many poems far too annoying, as I cannot relate at all ; this is especially true in the literary remains selection mentioned above.

In the first 3 portions, the main body of the book, poems may be religious, but others portray subjects around nature, despair and hope, in more or less fluid form, some rhyming, some not. 

My favorite are those of nature and rhyming, but also some of those despair and hope ones. I find that these poems are very uneven in their wording, some flew really nicely but many felt forced and boring, so I quickly perused those as well as the super religious ones.

My overall note is a medium 5/10, I cannot attest to their technics, because I don't know enough about poetry, a literary genre I struggle with, perhaps the most. 

Lists: 

POEMS BY CURRER BELL (p.6)

PILATE'S WIFE'S DREAM.  MEMENTOS.  THE WIFE'S WILL.

FRANCES. GILBERT. LIFE.  THE LETTER. REGRET. 

PRESENTIMENT. THE TEACHER'S MONOLOGUE. 

PASSION. PREFERENCE. EVENING SOLACE. 

STANZAS. PARTING.  APOSTASY. WINTER STORES.

THE MISSIONARY. 

POEMS BY ELLIS BELL (p. 64)

FAITH AND DESPONDENCY. STARS.  THE PHILOSOPHER.

REMEMBRANCE.  A DEATH-SCENE. SONG. ANTICIPATION.

THE PRISONER. HOPE.  A DAY DREAM. TO IMAGINATION.

HOW CLEAR SHE SHINES. SYMPATHY.  PLEAD FOR ME. 

SELF-INTEROGATION,  DEATH. 

STANZAS TO —— HONOUR'S MARTYR.  STANZAS.

MY COMFORTER.THE OLD STOIC. 

POEMS BY ACTON BELL (p. 102)

A REMINISCENCE. THE ARBOUR. HOME. 

VANITAS VANITATUM, OMNIA VANITAS.

THE PENITENT.  MUSIC ON CHRISTMAS MORNING.

 STANZAS. IF THIS BE ALL.  MEMORY.  TO COWPER.

THE DOUBTER'S PRAYER.  A WORD TO THE "ELECT."

PAST DAYS.  THE CONSOLATION. 

LINES COMPOSED IN A WOOD ON A WINDY DAY.

VIEWS OF LIFE. APPEAL. THE STUDENT'S SERENADE.

THE CAPTIVE DOVE. SELF-CONGRATULATION.

FLUCTUATIONS,

SELECTIONS FROM THE LITERARY REMAINS OF ELLIS AND ACTON BELL (p.138).

SELECTIONS FROM POEMS BY ELLIS BELL.

I.

II. THE BLUEBELL. 

III.

THE NIGHT-WIND.

LOVE AND FRIENDSHIP.

THE ELDER'S REBUKE.

THE WANDERER FROM THE FOLD.

WARNING AND REPLY.

LAST WORDS.

THE LADY TO HER GUITAR.

THE TWO CHILDREN.

THE VISIONARY.

ENCOURAGEMENT.

STANZAS.

SELECTIONS FROM POEMS BY ACTON BELL.

DESPONDENCY.

A PRAYER.

IN MEMORY OF A HAPPY DAY IN FEBRUARY.

CONFIDENCE.

LINES WRITTEN FROM HOME.

THE NARROW WAY.

DOMESTIC PEACE.

THE THREE GUIDES. [First published in FRASER'S MAGAZINE.]