Singing from the Margins: Anne Brontë’s Surprising Poetic Afterlife

Abstract

Abstract Anne Brontë was the only hymn-writer in her family, and her hymns have had a successful afterlife in multiple hymnals from 1858 to 1997. Her hymns have been used by a variety of religious denominations and sects, in numerous countries, among various groups of people, from children to university students to the sick and suffering. Although Charlotte Brontë’s selection of poems for the 1850 reissue of The Tenant of Wildfell Hall was responsible for the publication of five of Anne’s seven published hymns, it was Anne’s own sensitivity to hymnody as a means of exploring religious faith that ensured her successful afterlife as a hymn writer. 1 Various digital and Internet resources such as Google Books, www.hymnary.org, and YouTube have made it possible to discover more about Anne as a hymn-writer, including the fact that her hymn ‘Believe not those who say’ has appeared in over sixty hymnals. This article provides an overview of the afterlife of Anne Brontë’s hymns with the hope of prompting further investigation into this topic. 2