IX.

LUCY GRAY;

OR, SOLITUDE.

OFT I had heard of Lucy Gray:
And, when I crossed the wild,

I chanced to see, at break of day,
The solitary child.

No mate, no comrade Lucy knew;
She dwelt on a wide moor, -

The sweetest thing that ever grew
Beside a human door!

You yet may spy the fawn at play,
The hare upon the green;

But the sweet face of Lucy Gray
Will never more be seen.

"To-night will be a stormy night,— You to the town must go ;

And take a lantern, Child, to light
Your mother through the snow."

That, Father! will I gladly do: 'Tis scarcely afternoon,

The minster-clock has just struck two, And yonder is the moon!"

At this the father raised his hook,
And snapped a fagot-band;

He plied his work;

and Lucy took

The lantern in her hand.

Not blither is the mountain roe:
With many a wanton stroke

Her feet disperse the powdery snow,
That rises up like smoke.

The storm came on before its time:
She wandered up and down;

And many a hill did Lucy climb:
But never reached the town.

The wretched parents all that night

Went shouting far and wide;

But there was neither sound nor sight

To serve them for a guide.

At day-break on the hill they stood

That overlooked the moor;

And thence they saw the bridge of wood,

A furlong from their door.

They wept,

and, turning homeward, cried,

"In heaven we all shall meet ";

When in the snow the mother spied
The print of Lucy's feet.

Then downwards from the steep hill's edge They tracked the footmarks small;

And through the broken hawthorn-hedge, And by the long stone-wall;

And then an open field they crossed:
The marks were still the same;

They tracked them on, nor ever lost;
And to the bridge they came.

They followed from the snowy bank
Those footmarks, one by one,
Into the middle of the plank;

And further there were none !

Yet some maintain that to this day

She is a living child;

That

you may see sweet Lucy Gray Upon the lonesome wild.

O'er rough and smooth she trips along,

And never looks behind ;

And sings a solitary song

That whistles in the wind.

1799.

X.

WE ARE SEVEN.

A simple Child,

That lightly draws its breath,
And feels its life in every limb,

What should it know of death?

I met a little cottage Girl:

She was eight years old, she said ;
Her hair was thick with many a curl

That clustered round her head.

She had a rustic, woodland air,

And she was wildly clad:

Her eyes were fair, and very fair;

Her beauty made me glad.

"Sisters and brothers, little Maid,

How many may you be?"

"How many? Seven in all," she said,

And wondering looked at me.

“And where are they? I pray you tell."

She answered, "Seven are we ;
And two of us at Conway dwell,

And two are gone to sea.

"Two of us in the churchyard lie,
My sister and my brother;
And, in the churchyard cottage,
Dwell near them with my mother."

"You say that two at Conway dwell,
And two are gone to sea,

Yet ye are seven! I pray you tell,
Sweet Maid, how this may be."

Then did the little Maid reply,
"Seven boys and girls are we;
Two of us in the churchyard lie,
Beneath the churchyard tree."

"You run about, my little Maid, Your limbs they are alive;

If two are in the churchyard laid,

Then ye are only five."

"Their graves are green, they may be seen," The little Maid replied,

Twelve steps or more from my mother's door,

And they are side by side.

"My stockings there I often knit,

My kerchief there I hem ;

And there upon the ground I sit,

And sing a song to them.