THE POETICAL WORKS OF WILLIAM WORDSWORTH - VOL. 2 (Completed)

"THREE YEARS SHE GREW IN SUN AND SHOWER"

Composed 1799.--Published 1800

[1799. Composed in the Hartz Forest.--I.F.]

One of the "Poems of the Imagination." It has no title in any edition,but from 1820 to 1836 the second page occupied by the poem is headed"Lucy." In the editions of 1836 to 1843, it is called "Lucy" in the list of contents.--Ed.

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: [1] 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 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;

Nor shall she fail to see

Even in the motions of the Storm

Grace that shall mould the Maiden's form [2]

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 [A]

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. [B]

* * * * *

VARIANTS ON THE TEXT

[Variant 1:1800.

Her Teacher I myself will be,

She is my darling;--...MS. 1801, and the edition of 1802.

The edition of 1805 returns to the text of 1800.]

[Variant 2:1800.

A reading--printed in the edition of 1800, but replaced in its list of 'errata' by that given in the text--may be quoted here,

A beauty that shall mould her form ...         1800.]

* * * * *

FOOTNOTES ON THE TEXT

[Footnote A: Compare Dryden's 'Indian Emperor', iv. 3.--Ed.]

[Footnote B: On Oct 9, 1800, S. T. Coleridge, in writing to Sir Humphry Davy of his own 'Christabel', said,

"I would rather have written 'Ruth', and 'Nature's Lady,' than a million such poems."

This poem was printed in 'The Morning Post', March 2nd, 1801.--Ed.]

* * * * *