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.1

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.

My horse moved on; hoof after hoof
He raised, and never stopped:
When down behind the cottage-roof,

At once, the bright moon dropped.2

What fond and wayward thoughts will slide

Into a Lover's head!

"O mercy!" to myself I cried,

"If Lucy should be dead!"

SHE DWELT AMONG THE UNTRODDEN WAYS.

SHE dwelt among the untrodden ways

Beside the springs of Dove,

A Maid whom there were none to praise
And very few to love:

Towards the roof of Lucy's cot
The moon descended still.

1815.

At once the planet dropped.

1800.

1800.

1

A violet by a mossy stone

Half hidden from the eye!

-Fair as a star, when only one

Is shining in the sky.

She lived unknown, and few could know

When Lucy ceased to be;

But she is in her grave, and, oh,

The difference to me!

I TRAVELLED AMONG UNKNOWN MEN.

Among thy mountains did I feel

The joy of my desire;

And she I cherished turned her wheel

Beside an English fire.

Thy mornings showed, thy nights concealed
The bowers where Lucy played;
And thine too is the last green field

That Lucy's eyes surveyed.1

And thine is, too, the last green field
Which Lucy's eyes surveyed.

And thine is too the last green
That Lucy's eyes surveyed.

1807.

field

1815.

THREE YEARS SHE GREW IN SUN AND SHOWER.

Comp. 1799.

Pub. 1800.

[1799. Composed in the Hartz Forest.]

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 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 mould the Maiden's form1

By silent sympathy.

1 1802

A beauty that shall mould her form

1800.

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.

A SLUMBER DID MY SPIRIT SEAL.

Comp. 1799.

Pub. 1800.

[Written in Germany.]

A SLUMBER did my spirit seal;

I had no human fears:

She seemed a thing that could not feel
The touch of earthly years.

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.

ART thou a Statist1 in the van
Of public conflicts trained and bred ??
-First learn to love one living man;
Then may'st thou think upon the dead.

A Lawyer art thou ?-draw not nigh!
Go, carry to some fitter place
The keenness of that practised eye,
The hardness of that sallow face.1

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