Brontë poem up for sale

A rare poem by 13-year-old Charlotte Brontë is going up for sale.

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Full version of rare Brontë poem

Charlotte Bronte Credit: Press Association Archive

I've been wandering in the greenwoods

And mid flowery smiling plains

I've been listening to the dark floods

To the thrushes thrilling strains

I have gathered the pale primrose

And the purple violet sweet

I've been where the Asphodel grows

And where lives the red deer fleet.

I've been to the distant mountain,

To the silver singing rill

By the crystal murmering mountain,

And the shady verdant hill.

I've been where the poplar is springing

From the fair Inamelled ground

Where the nightingale is singing

With a solemn plaintive sound.

Brontë poem manuscript up for sale

The manuscript of Charlotte Brontë’s poem, "I’ve been wandering in the greenwoods", written when she was just 13, is to be sold on 10 April at auction. It is estimated at £40,000 - 45,000.

The poem is signed C Brontë and dated by her 14 December 1829. It is written on a small slip of paper 3x3 inches in size and cannot be read easily without a magnifying glass

Although Charlotte Brontë wrote around 200 poems, the vast majority of the manuscripts are in institutions. There are perhaps no more than four in private hands, making this poem extremely rare.

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