Explore "Mementos. Currer Bell" by Charlotte Brontë on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Arranging long-locked drawers and shelves / Of cabinets, shut up for years, / What a strange task we've set ourselves! / How still the lonely room appears! / How strange this mass of ancient treasures, / Mementos of past pains and pleasures; / These volumes, clasped with costly stone, / With print all faded, gilding gone;
These fans of leaves from Indian trees -- / These crimson shells, from Indian seas -- / These tiny portraits, set in rings -- / Once, doubtless, deemed such precious things; / Keepsakes bestowed by Love on Faith, / And worn till the receiver's death, / Now stored with cameos, china, shells, / In this old closet's dusty cells.