Lucy Still o'er these scenes my memory wakes, Where is thy place of blissful rest? See'st thou thy lover lowly laid? Hear'st thou the groans that rend his breast? 1073 Robert Burns [1759-1796] LUCY I STRANGE fits of passion have I known: And I will dare to tell, But in the lover's ear alone, What once to me befell. When she I loved looked every day Fresh as a rose in June, I to her cottage bent my way, Beneath an evening moon. Upon the moon I fixed my eye, All over the wide lea; With quickening pace my horse drew nigh Those paths so dear to me. And now we reached the orchard-plot; And, as we climbed the hill, The sinking moon to Lucy's cot Came near, and nearer still. In one of those sweet dreams I slept, Kind Nature's gentlest boon! And all the while my eyes I kept On the descending moon. 1074 My horse moved on; hoof after hoof When down behind the cottage roof, What fond and wayward thoughts will slide "O mercy!" to myself I cried, "If Lucy should be dead!" II She dwelt among the untrodden ways A Maid whom there were none to praise A violet by a mossy stone She lived unknown, and few could know When Lucy ceased to be; But she is in her grave, and oh, The difference to me! III I traveled among unknown men, 'Tis past, that melancholy dream! Among thy mountains did I feel And she I cherished turned her wheel Beside an English fire. Lucy Thy mornings showed, thy nights concealed, The bowers where Lucy played; And thine too is the last green field That Lucy's eyes surveyed. 1075 IV Three years she grew in sun and shower; 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, To kindle or restrain. "She shall be sportive as the fawn That wild with glee across the lawn Or up the mountain springs; And hers shall be the breathing balm, And hers 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 mold 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, 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, And never more will be. V A slumber did my spirit seal; I had no human fears: She seemed a thing that could not feel No motion has she now, or force; Rolled round in earth's diurnal course, With rocks, and stones, and trees. William Wordsworth (1770-1850] PROUD MAISIE From "The Heart of Midlothian " PROUD Maisie is in the wood, Walking so early; Sweet Robin sits on the bush, Singing so rarely. "Tell me, thou bonny bird, The Maid's Lament 1077 "Who makes the bridal bed, Birdie, say truly?" -"The gray-headed sexton That delves the grave duly. "The glow-worm o'er grave and stone Shall light thee steady; The owl from the steeple sing Welcome, proud lady!" Walter Scott [1771-1832] SONG EARL MARCH looked on his dying child, She's at the window many an hour And he looked up to Ellen's bower But ah! so pale, he knew her not, And I am then forgot-forgot? It broke the heart of Ellen. In vain he weeps, in vain he sighs, Her cheek is cold as ashes; Nor love's own kiss shall wake those eyes To lift their silken lashes. Thomas Campbell [1777-1844] THE MAID'S LAMENT From "The Examination of Shakespeare" I LOVED him not; and yet now he is gone I feel I am alone. I checked him while he spoke; yet could he speak, Alas! I would not check. |