One pause upon the brink of life
116
ONE pause upon the brink of life,
Before it breaks, in headlong strife,
Upon its downward road;
One insight through the waters clear,
Before their pictures disappear
In the fierce foaming flood.
As rendered in Brontë Poems: Selections from the poetry of Charlotte, Emily, Anne and Branwell Brontë (1915)
116
ONE pause upon the brink of life,
Before it breaks, in headlong strife,
Upon its downward road;
One insight through the waters clear,
Before their pictures disappear
In the fierce foaming flood.