Poem written by a 13-year-old sells for $140,000

Granted, the 13-year-old was Charlotte Brontë, and the poem was written in 1829, but still....

"I've Been Wandering in the Greenwoods" is one of four of Charlotte Brontë's 200 poems in private hands. The rest have been collected by institutions.

The extremely rare manuscript, measuring a scant three square inches, sold at Bonhams Auction House for about £100,000 (about $140,000 USD) – more than twice its estimated worth, reported the Guardian.

Most famous for "Jane Eyre," which she wrote under the pseudonym "Currer Bell," Charlotte Brontë also wrote poetry.

Titled "I've Been Wandering in the Greenwoods," signed "C. Brontë," and dated December 14, 1829, the poem is one of about four of Charlotte Brontë's 200 poems in private hands. The rest have been collected by institutions. All the Brontë siblings (including Emily, Anne, and brother Branwell) wrote with small, cramped letters to get the most out of their limited, expensive supply of paper. The poem is difficult to read unaided.

"Greenwoods" appeared in "The Young Man's Intelligencer," the Brontë sibling's literary magazine that they wrote and edited themselves. Charlotte took over editing the magazine from Branwell in 1829, the year the poem was published.

Here's the text of the poem:

"I've Been Wandering in the Greenwoods"

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 fountain, 
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.

-C. Brontë, December 14, 1829

Ben Frederick is a contributor to The Christian Science Monitor

You've read  of  free articles. Subscribe to continue.
Real news can be honest, hopeful, credible, constructive.
What is the Monitor difference? Tackling the tough headlines – with humanity. Listening to sources – with respect. Seeing the story that others are missing by reporting what so often gets overlooked: the values that connect us. That’s Monitor reporting – news that changes how you see the world.

Dear Reader,

About a year ago, I happened upon this statement about the Monitor in the Harvard Business Review – under the charming heading of “do things that don’t interest you”:

“Many things that end up” being meaningful, writes social scientist Joseph Grenny, “have come from conference workshops, articles, or online videos that began as a chore and ended with an insight. My work in Kenya, for example, was heavily influenced by a Christian Science Monitor article I had forced myself to read 10 years earlier. Sometimes, we call things ‘boring’ simply because they lie outside the box we are currently in.”

If you were to come up with a punchline to a joke about the Monitor, that would probably be it. We’re seen as being global, fair, insightful, and perhaps a bit too earnest. We’re the bran muffin of journalism.

But you know what? We change lives. And I’m going to argue that we change lives precisely because we force open that too-small box that most human beings think they live in.

The Monitor is a peculiar little publication that’s hard for the world to figure out. We’re run by a church, but we’re not only for church members and we’re not about converting people. We’re known as being fair even as the world becomes as polarized as at any time since the newspaper’s founding in 1908.

We have a mission beyond circulation, we want to bridge divides. We’re about kicking down the door of thought everywhere and saying, “You are bigger and more capable than you realize. And we can prove it.”

If you’re looking for bran muffin journalism, you can subscribe to the Monitor for $15. You’ll get the Monitor Weekly magazine, the Monitor Daily email, and unlimited access to CSMonitor.com.

QR Code to Poem written by a 13-year-old sells for $140,000
Read this article in
https://www.csmonitor.com/Books/chapter-and-verse/2013/0412/Poem-written-by-a-13-year-old-sells-for-140-000
QR Code to Subscription page
Start your subscription today
https://www.csmonitor.com/subscribe