Page:Lyrical ballads, Volume 1, Wordsworth, 1800.djvu/201

149 Dread not their taunts, my little life!

I am thy father's wedded wife;

And underneath the spreading tree

We two will live in honesty.

If his sweet boy he could forsake,

With me he never would have stay'd:

From him no harm my babe can take,

But he, poor man! is wretched made,

And every day we two will pray

For him that's gone and far away.

I'll teaahteach [sic] my boy the sweetest things;

I'll teach him how the owlet sings.

My little babe! thy lips are still,

And thou hast almost suck'd thy fill.

—Where art thou gone my own dear child?

What wicked looks are those I see?

Alas! alas! that look so wild,

It never, never came from me:

If thou art mad, my pretty lad,

Then I must be for ever sad.