WHY art thou silent! III Is thy love a plant Yet have my thoughts for thee been vigilant- Speak-though this soft warm heart, once free to hold Than a forsaken bird's-nest filled with snow Speak, that my torturing doubts their end may know! IV THREE years she grew in sun and shower, Then Nature said, "A lovelier flower On earth was never sown ; This Child I to myself will take; She shall be mine, and I will make Myself will to my darling be Both law and impulse: and with me The Girl, in rock and plain, In earth and heaven, in glade and bower, Shall feel an overseeing power To kindle or restrain. She shall be sportive as the fawn Of mute insensate things. The floating clouds their state shall lend To her; for her the willow bend; Nor shall she fail to see Even in the motions of the Storm Grace that shall mould the Maiden's form By silent sympathy. The stars of midnight shall be dear To her; and she shall lean her ear In many a secret place Where rivulets dance their wayward round, And beauty born of murmuring sound And vital feelings of delight Shall rear her form to stately height, Her virgin bosom swell; Such thoughts to Lucy I will give While she and I together live Here in this happy dell." Thus Nature spake-The work was done- She died, and left to me This heath, this calm, and quiet scene; The memory of what has been, SHE dwelt among the untrodden ways A Maid whom there were none to praise A violet by a mossy stone 1799 She lived unknown, and few could know But she is in her grave, and, oh, The difference to me! 1799 VI A SLUMBER did my spirit seal; I had no human fears: She seemed a thing that could not feel No motion has she now, no force; She neither hears nor sees; Rolled round in earth's diurnal course, With rocks, and stones, and trees. 1799 VII I TRAVELLED among unknown men, 'Tis past, that melancholy dream! Among thy mountains did I feel The joy of my desire ; And she I cherished turned her wheel Thy mornings showed, thy nights concealed That Lucy's eyes surveyed. 1799 VIII 'Tis said, that some have died for love : And here and there a church-yard grave is found In the cold north's unhallowed ground, Because the wretched man himself had slain, His love was such a grievous pain. And there is one whom I five years have known; He dwells alone Upon Helvellyn's side: He loved the pretty Barbara died; And thus he makes his moan: Three years had Barbara in her grave been laid Oh, move, thou Cottage, from behind that oak! Or let the aged tree uprooted lie, That in some other way yon smoke |