He
tried various outlets for his talents. He wrote and sent poems to
Wordsworth and Coleridge, who both expressed kind and laudatory opinions,
and he frequently contributed verses to the _Leeds Mercury_. In 1840, he
was living at home, employing himself in occasional composition of
various kinds, and waiting till some occupation, for which he might be
fitted without any expensive course of preliminary training, should turn
up; waiting, not impatiently; for he saw society of one kind (probably
what he called "life") at the Black Bull; and at home he was as yet the
cherished favourite.
Miss Branwell was unaware of the fermentation of unoccupied talent going
on around her. She was not her nieces' confidante--perhaps no one so
much older could have been; but their father, from whom they derived not
a little of their adventurous spirit, was silently cognisant of much of
which she took no note. Next to her nephew, the docile, pensive Anne was
her favourite. Of her she had taken charge from her infancy; she was
always patient and tractable, and would submit quietly to occasional
oppression, even when she felt it keenly. Not so her two elder sisters;
they made their opinions known, when roused by any injustice. At such
times, Emily would express herself as strongly as Charlotte, although
perhaps less frequently.
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