Branwell Life
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Did Branwell Try to Get into the Royal Academy?
Branwell’s most famous work is his art; his portrait of his sisters hangs in the National Portrait Gallery, alongside a fragment of Emily from another portrait he painted. Branwell’s style, and his faults, come from tutelage he received from William Robinson, an artist from nearby Leeds who had studied at the Royal Academy. It seems…
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Branwell: The Political Brontë
An excerpt from The Life and Work of Branwell Brontë, describing Branwell’s political activity in 1837: Branwell also became a political figure that year. On 27th January he established a Haworth Operative Conservative Society, the objectives of which were to ‘maintain loyalty to the King attachment to the connection between church and State respect for the…
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On Peaceful Death and Painful Life by Branwell Brontë
Why dost thou sorrow for the happy dead? For if their life be lost their toils are o’er, And woe and want can trouble them no more; Nor ever slept they in an earthly bed So sound as now they sleep, while dreamless laid In the dark chambers of the unknown shore, Where Night and…
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Letter from a Father on Earth to His Child in Her Grave by Branwell Brontë
From Earth, –whose life-reviving April showers Hide winter’s withered grass ‘neath springtide flowers, And give, in each soft wind that drives the rain, Promise of fields and forests green again– I write to thee, the aspect of whose face Can never change with change of time or place; Whose eyes could look on India’s wildest…
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Black Comb by Branwell Brontë
Far off, and half revealed ‘mid shade and light, Blackcomb half smiles, half frowns; his mighty form Scarce blending into peace; –more formed to fight A thousand years of struggles with a storm Than bask one hour, subdued by sunshine warm To bright and breezeless rest; –yet even his height Towers not o’er this world’s sympathies–he smiles,…
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Noah’s Warning Over Methuselah’s Grave by Branwell Brontë
Brothers and men! One moment stayBeside your latest patriarch’s grave,While God’s just vengeance yet delay–While God’s blest mercy yet can save. Will you compel my tongue to say,That underneath this nameless sodYour hands, with mine, have laid to-dayThe last on earth who walked with God? Shall his pale corpse, whose hoary hairAre just surrendered to…
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The Poetry of Branwell Brontë
A drunk. A drug addict. A wasted talent. These are often the words used to describe Branwell Brontë. But did you know that Branwell was a published poet long before his sisters? Not many do. Branwell didn’t help himself (he rarely did) by publishing under a pseudonym: Northangerland. This name belonged to his favourite character from…
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What did Branwell Brontë look like?
Branwell Brontë spent time as a professional portrait painter, yet we have very few portraits of the Brontë sisters, and even fewer of Branwell himself. So what did Branwell look like? As a burgeoning artist, Branwell turned to his family to be amongst his first subjects. He drew a portrait of his three surviving sisters,…
