Sometimes there are clouds of gloom,
But these are transient all;
If the shower will make the roses bloom,
O why lament its fall ?

Rapidly, merrily,
Life's sunny hours flit by,
Gratefully, cheerily,
Enjoy them as they fly!

What though Death at times steps in
And calls our Best away?
What though sorrow seems to win,
O'er hope, a heavy sway?
Yet hope again elastic springs,
Unconquered, though she fell;
Still buoyant are her golden wings,
Still strong to bear us well.
Manfully, fearlessly,
The day of trial bear,
For gloriously, victoriously,
Can courage quell despair !

~ Charlotte Bronte

Despite the fame that Charlotte Bronte garnered after writing her most famous novel, Jane Eyre, she never enjoyed the spotlight and did not stay away from her home on the Yorkshire moors for very long.

And though Jane Eyre was immediately successful, (it was performed on stages in England and Germany under the title, “The Orphan of Lowood”) Charlotte’s early life was far from pleasant.

She was the third of six children and the eldest of her two famous sisters, Emily (Wuthering Heights) and Anne (Agnes Grey).  It is believed that Lowood School in Jane Eyre was modeled by Charlotte after the school that she and her sisters attended when they were young - the Clergy Daughters' School in Lancashire.  According to historians, Charlotte blamed the school for her permanent lack of health and the early deaths of her two elder sisters, Maria and Elizabeth, who died shortly after her father had them removed from the school.

Charlotte then went on to pen wild tales with her brother and sisters to pass their time living on the lonely moors.  Parts of these imaginative works still exist. Interestingly, Charlotte and her sisters published some of their pieces under fake names.  Charlotte used “Currer Bell” for the publication of her first two books and she stated her reasons as follows:

Averse to personal publicity, we veiled our own names under those of Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell; the ambiguous choice being dictated by a sort of conscientious scruple at assuming Christian names positively masculine, while we did not like to declare ourselves women, because—without at that time suspecting that our mode of writing and thinking was not what is called 'feminine' — we had a vague impression that authoresses are liable to be looked on with prejudice; we had noticed how critics sometimes use for their chastisement the weapon of personality, and for their reward, a flattery, which is not true praise.

To read a piece of poetry by Emily click here.  And to see a sample of Anne’s writing click here!