Emily Bronte (1818-1848). The Old Stoic. Arthur Quiller-Couch, comp. 1922. The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse

Arthur Quiller-Couch, comp. The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse. 1922.

The Old Stoic

By Emily Brontë (1818–1848)


RICHES I hold in light esteem,
And Love I laugh to scorn;
And lust of fame was but a dream
That vanish’d with the morn:

And, if I pray, the only prayer	5
That moves my lips for me
Is, ‘Leave the heart that now I bear,
And give me liberty!’

Yea, as my swift days near their goal,
’Tis all that I implore:	10
In life and death a chainless soul,
With courage to endure.