Insensible to all relief Sat the poor girl, and forth did send "My child, in Durham do you dwell?' She checked herself in her distress, And said, "My name is Alice Fell; I'm fatherless and motherless. And I to Durham, Sir, belong." The chaise drove on; our journey's end Up to the tavern-door we post ; "And let it be of duffil grey, As warm a cloak as man can sell!" Proud creature was she the next day, The little orphan, Alice Fell! WE ARE SEVEN.* A simple Child, That lightly draws its breath, I met a little cottage Girl : That clustered round her head. She had a rustic, woodland air, Her eyes were fair, and very fair; "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. *This was, perhaps, the most popular of Mr. Wordsworth's early poems. It was written at Alfoxden, Somersetshire, in the spring of 1798. The little girl who is the heroine, Mr. W. met within the area of Goderich Castle, in 1793. The last stanza was the first composed. Two of us in the church-yard lie, "You say that two at Conway dwell, Yet ye are seven !—I Then did the little Maid reply, "You run about, my little Maid, Your limbs they are alive; If two are in the church-yard 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 there upon the ground I sit- And often after sun-set, Sir, The first that died was sister Jane ; Till God released her of her pain; So in the church-yard she was laid; And when the ground was white with snow, And I could run and slide, My brother John was forced to go, And he lies by her side." “How many are you, then," said I, "If they two are in heaven?" Quick was the little Maid's reply, "O Master! we are seven. "But they are dead; those two are dead! Their spirits are in heaven !" 'Twas throwing words away; for still The little Maid would have her will, * And all the summer dry.-Edit. 1815. ANECDOTE FOR FATHERS,* 'Retine vim istam, falsa enim dicam, si coges.' EUSEBIUS. I HAVE a boy of five years old; His face is fair and fresh to see'; His limbs are cast in beauty's mould, One morn we strolled on our dry walk, My thoughts on former pleasures ran; A day it was when I could bear The green earth echoed to the feet Of lambs that bounded through the glade, *In the Edition of 1815 there was the sub-title, "Showing how the practice of lying may be taught." For this the Latin motto, which did not then appear, was afterwards substituted. The boy was Mr. Basil Montagu's son, who lived under Mr. Wordsworth's care, at Alfoxden, in 1797. To think-and think-and think again.-Edit. 1815. This, and the succeeding five lines, are not in the Edition of 1815. There are also several trifling alterations. |