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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
A lady of my own.
"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
That wild with glee across the lawn
Or up the
mountain springs;
And her's shall be the breathing
balm,
And her's the silence and the calm
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
Shall
pass into her face.
"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 -
How soon my Lucy's race was run!
She died, and left
to me
This heath, this calm and quiet scene;
The
memory of what has been,
And never more will be.
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