Three Years She Grew in Sun and Shower by Wordsworth

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,                    10

          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;                            20

          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.                                   30

          "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;                     40

          The memory of what has been,

          And never more will be.

                                                              1799.