Three Years She Grew
Three Years She Grew
Original Text
William Wordsworth and S. T. Coleridge, Lyrical Ballads, 2nd edn. (London: Longman, 1800). No. 5, 1 (c.1,2), 2(c.1) (Victoria College Library, Toronto).
1Three years she grew in sun and shower,
2Then Nature said, "A lovelier flower
3On earth was never sown;
4This Child I to myself will take;
5She shall be mine, and I will make
6A Lady of my own.
7"Myself will to my darling be
8Both law and impulse: and with me
9The Girl, in rock and plain,
10In earth and heaven, in glade and bower,
11Shall feel an overseeing power
12To kindle or restrain.
13"She shall be sportive as the fawn
14That wild with glee across the lawn
15Or up the mountain springs;
16And hers shall be the breathing balm,
17And hers the silence and the calm
18Of mute insensate things.
19"The floating clouds their state shall lend
20To her; for her the willow bend;
21Nor shall she fail to see
22Even in the motions of the Storm
23Grace that shall mould the Maiden's form
24By silent sympathy.
25"The stars of midnight shall be dear
26To her; and she shall lean her ear
27In many a secret place
28Where rivulets dance their wayward round,
29And beauty born of murmuring sound
30Shall pass into her face.
31"And vital feelings of delight
32Shall rear her form to stately height,
33Her virgin bosom swell;
34Such thoughts to Lucy I will give
35While she and I together live
36Here in this happy dell."
37Thus Nature spake--The work was done--
38How soon my Lucy's race was run!
39She died, and left to me
40This heath, this calm and quiet scene;
41The memory of what has been,
42And never more will be.
Publication Start Year
1800
RPO poem Editors
J. R. MacGillivray
RPO Edition
3RP 2.335.
Rhyme