G THE MINUET. RANDMA told me all about it, How she held her pretty head, Grandma's hair was bright and sunny; Bless her! why, she wears a cap, Grandma says our modern jumping, No; they moved with stately grace, Modern ways are quite alarming, Grandma says; but boys were charming- Bravely modest, grandly shy, With the minuet in fashion In time to come if I, perchance, "We did it, dear, in some such way, S LUCY. HE dwelt among the untrodden ways, A maid whom there were none to praise, A violet by a mossy stone, She lived unknown, and few could know When Lucy ceased to be; But she is in her grave, and oh, The difference to me! Wordsworth. CUMNOR HALL. HE dews of summer night did fall, TH The moon (sweet regent of the sky) Silver'd the walls of Cumnor Hall, And many an oak that grew thereby. Now nought was heard beneath the skies (The sounds of busy life were still), Save an unhappy lady's sighs, That issued from that lonely pile. "Leicester," she cried, "is this thy love No more thou com'st, with lover's speed, But be she alive, or be she dead, I fear, stern Earl, is the same to thee. Not so the usage I received When happy in my father's hall; I rose up with the cheerful morn, No lark so blithe, no flower more gay; And, like the bird that haunts the thorn, So merrily sung the livelong day. If that my beauty is but small, Among court ladies all despised, Why didst thou rend it from that hall Where, scornful Earl, it well was prized? And when you first to me made suit, Yes! now neglected and despised, For know, when sickening grief doth prey, And tender love's repaid with scorn, The sweetest beauty will decay: What floweret can endure the storm? At court, I'm told, is Beauty's throne, Then, Earl, why didst thou leave the beds 'Mong rural beauties I was one; Among the fields wild flowers are fair; But, Leicester (or I much am wrong), Makes thee forget thy humble spouse. Then, Leicester, why, again I plead (The injured surely may repine), Why didst thou wed a country maid, When some fair princess might be thine? |