# Self-Communion

Self-Communion.
Self-Communion
A Poem
by
Anne Brontë
Edited by Thomas J. Wise
London: Privately Printed
1900
This is to certify that of this book
Thirty Copies only have been Printed.
Preface.
The following poem, now printed for the first time from the original Manuscript, was written by Anne Brontë in the winter of 1847–48. Its composition belongs, therefore, to the period which intervened between the publication of Poems by Currer, Ellis and Acton Bell in 1846, and The Tenant of Wildfield Hall in 1848.
Self-Communion is not one of the juvenile essays, written in a microscopic hand, which were produced in considerable numbers by the Brontë children, and with which every Brontë student is sufficiently familiar. The poem is, on the contrary, a mature effort, and is by no means inferior to much of the work which Anne contributed to the joint volume of 1847.
The Manuscript is well and carefully written, ​as will be seen from a glance at the facsimiles of two of its pages which serve to illustrate the present book. It extends to nineteen crown octavo pages, the first seventeen and a half of which are devoted to the longer poem, the remaining two and a half being occupied by the forty Lines. Both Self-Communion and the Lines are initialed by Anne, and marked with the dates upon which they were severally completed. In the case of the former, Anne has added at the commencement, below the title, “Begun Nov. 1847.”
The holograph was recovered by the Rev. Arthur Bell Nicholls from among his wife’s (Charlotte’s) papers, and was preserved by him until some give years or so ago, when it passed with other Brontë documents into my possession.
Thomas J. Wise.
Self-Communion.
Self-Communion.
* ↑ Cancelled reading: So keenly strikes the vacant ear.
* ↑ Cancelled reading: And every passing night and day.
* ↑ Cancelled reading: What shall it do with all that trust.
* ↑ Cancelled reading:With infant hands upheld to Heaven.
* ↑ Cancelled reading:To none on earth is known.
* ↑ Cancelled reading: When angry passions rose between
* ↑ Cancelled reading: For things I worshiped, sought, and prized.
* ↑ Cancelled reading: Where heart may bask and spirit rest.
* ↑ Cancelled reading: They have not lived nor hoped in vain.
* ↑ Alternative reading: So lying hopes false hopes shall chace.
* ↑ Alternative reading: Did I not tell thee, long before.
* ↑ Cancelled reading: This bitter cup—that binding chain.
* ↑ Alternative reading: The cruel bonds to break.
* ↑ Cancelled reading: O toil! and if thy strength be small, Toil yet the more, and spend it all.
* ↑ Cancelled reading: O I have toiled both hard and long.
* ↑ Alternative reading: Oh, drive these gloomy mists away.
* ↑ Cancelled reading: However bleak my passage be.
* ↑ Cancelled reading: Nay welcome labour, grief, and pain, While God’s approval I can gain.
Lines.
Lines.
Believe not those who say The upward path is smooth, Lest thou shouldst stumble in the way And faint before the truth.
It is the only road Unto the realms of joy;
But he who seeks that blest abode Must all his powers employ.
Bright hopes and pure delights Upon his course may beam, And there, amidst the sternest heights, The sweetest flowerets gleam;—
On all her breezes borne, Earth yields no scents like those;
But he, that dares not grasp the thorn, Should never crave the rose.
Arm, arm thee for the fight! Cast useless loads away: Watch through the darkest hours of night; Toil through the hottest day.
Crush pride into the dust, Or thou must needs be slack; And trample down rebellious lust, Or it will hold thee back.
Seek not thy honour here; Waive pleasure and renown; The World’s dread scoff undaunted bear, And face its deadliest frown.
To labour and to love, To pardon and endure, To lift thy heart to God above, And keep thy conscience pure,—
Be this thy constant aim, Thy hope and thy delight,—
What matters who should whisper blame, Or who should scorn or slight?—
What matters—if thy God approve, And if, within thy breast, Thou feel the comfort of his love, The earnest of his rest?
* ↑ Cancelled reading: The Heavenward path is smooth.
* ↑ Cancelled reading: That leads to perfect joy.
* ↑ Cancelled reading: But they who seek that blest abode.
* ↑ Alternative reading: And there, amid the wildest heights,
* ↑ Alternative reading: Thy prayer and thy delight.
Richard Clay and Sons, Limited, London and Bungay.
This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1929.
The longest-living author of this work died in 1937, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 86 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.
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