Writers’ Pantry #53: The Bicentenary of Anne Brontë’s Birth

Greetings, dear poets and storytellers. I hope you and your muse are having a good day. If not, well… then let us make each other’s day a bit better through words.

One of the gazillion literary trivia sites I follow informed me that today is Anne Brontë’s birthday. Yep, if she had still been with us, she would’ve been turning 200 (and very likely be suspected of vampirism). When I was done reading about her accomplishments—novels, a book of poems with her sisters—I realized that I have never read anything by her. I shall remedy that soon. I just have to decide if I want to start with Agnes Grey or The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. Have you read them? If so, which would you recommend I read first?

In the meantime, here are some of the lady’s words:

“The ties that bind us to life are tougher than you imagine, or than any one can who has not felt how roughly they may be pulled without breaking.” ~ from Agnes Grey

“Oh, Youth may listen patiently,
While sad Experience tells her tale,
But Doubt sits smiling in his eye,
For ardent Hope will still prevail!”
~ from “Views of Life”

And because today is also the second anniversary of Mary Oliver’s death, here are a few lines from our beloved Mary (which brighten my day whenever loss shrouds it in gloom):

“maybe death
isn’t darkness, after all,
but so much light
wrapping itself around us”
~ from Owls and Other Fantasies: Poems and Essays

Now, the Writers’ Pantry is open for word yumminess. Add your poetry or prose, new or old, short or long(is), jolly or growly; the choice is always yours. If you choose to delight us with your prose, let the word count be 369 words or fewer.

Please remember to add the direct link to your contribution, not just the link to your blog. That way we can find your post easily, especially if it takes us a few days to visit you. Take a moment to visit other participants, and let them know what their words do for you. As always, Mr. Linky will remain open for a week.

- for our next Weekly Scribblings, Rommy would like us to create new poetry or prose using one (or as many as we want) of the poetic terms she selected out of Bruce Hamana Sosei’s book, 100 Beautiful Words in The Way of Tea, which we can find in this link.

Let us write. Let us read. Let us grow and grow (with words).

Anne Brontë (at age 13) sketched by her sister, Charlotte Brontë