The following verses have always been known as the product of Hugh Brontë’s muse. I am inclined to think they may have, in an original form, been produced by Hugh, and smoothed down by his son Patrick. And perhaps, in the refining process, they have lost in strength more than they have gained in sound.
I do not think old Hugh would have known anything, at first hand, of “the peach bloom,” or of “the blood-red Mars.” The poem, forty years ago, had many variations, but there is one line of special interest, as it shows that the verses were known to Charlotte Brontë. The verse, with a slight variation, is put into the mouth of Jane Eyre. Rochester says: “Jane suits me; do I suit her?” Jane answers: “To the finest fibre of my nature, sir.” 350
ALICE AND HUGH.
The red rose paled before the blush
That mantled o’er thy dimpled cheek,
The peach bloom faded at the flush
That tinged thy beauty ripe and meek.
Thy milk-white brow outshone the snow:
Thy lustrous eyes outglanced the stars:
Thy cherry lips, with love aglow,