Emily Brontė (1818-1848):

 

Tell Me, Tell Me, Smiling Child

 

TELL me, tell me, smiling child,

    What the past is like to thee?

An Autumn evening, soft and mild,

    With a wind that sighs mournfully?

 

Tell me what is the present hour?

    A green and flowery spray,

Where a young bird sits gathering its power

    To mount and fly away?

 

And what is the future, happy one?

    A sea beneath a cloudless sun;

A mighty, glorious, dazzling sea,

    Stretching into infinity?

 

Arthur C. Benson, ed., Brontė Poems, Selections

from the Poetry of Charlotte, Emily, Anne and

Branwell Brontė (New York and London: The

Knickerbocker Press, 1915) 169.