Her parents held the Quaker rule,
Which doth the human feeling cool,
But she was train’d in Nature’s school,

        Nature had blest her.

A waking eye, a prying mind,
A heart that stirs, is hard to bind,
A hawk’s keen sight ye cannot blind,

        Ye could not Hester.

My sprightly neighbour, gone before
To that unknown and silent shore,
Shall we not meet, as heretofore,

        Some summer morning,

When from thy cheerful eyes a ray
Hath struck a bliss upon the day,
A bliss that would not go away,

        A sweet fore-warning?

* * * * *

Here came “To Charles Lloyd” See page 12.

Here came “The Three Friends” followed by “To a River in which a Child was drowned,” first printed in “Poetry for Children” 1809.  See vol. iii. of this edition, page 416.

Here came “The Old Familiar Faces.”  See page 25.

Here came “Helen” by Mary Lamb.  See page 28.

Here came “A Vision of Repentance.”  See page 13._

* * * * *

          DIALOGUE BETWEEN A MOTHER AND CHILD

        (By Mary Lamb. 1804)

        CHILD
        “O Lady, lay your costly robes aside,
        No longer may you glory in your pride.”

        MOTHER
        “Wherefore to-day art singing in mine ear
        Sad songs, were made so long ago, my dear;
        This day I am to be a bride, you know,
        Why sing sad songs, were made so long ago?”

CHILD “O, mother, lay your costly robes aside, For you may never be another’s bride. That line I learn’d not in the old sad song.”

        MOTHER
        “I pray thee, pretty one, now hold thy tongue,
        Play with the bride-maids, and be glad, my boy,
        For thou shall be a second father’s joy.”

        CHILD
        “One father fondled me upon his knee. 
        One father is enough, alone, for me.”

* * * * *

Here came “Queen Oriana’s Dream” from “Poetry for Children” See vol. iii. page 480.

Here came “A Ballad Noting the Difference of Rich and Poor.”  See page 30.

Here came “Hypochondriacus.”  See page 29._

* * * * *

              A FAREWELL TO TOBACCO
          (1805)

May the Babylonish curse
Strait confound my stammering verse,
If I can a passage see
In this word-perplexity,
Or a fit expression find,
Or a language to my mind,
(Still the phrase is wide or scant)
To take leave of thee, GREAT PLANT! 
Or in any terms relate
Half my love, or half my hate: 
For I hate, yet love, thee so,