Page:Lyrical ballads, Volume 2, Wordsworth, 1800.djvu/226

218 When thou art from me, even if I should speak

Of things thou canst not know of.——After thou

First cam'st into the world, as it befalls

To new-born infants, thou didst sleep away

Two days, and blessings from thy Father's tongue

Then fell upon thee. Day by day pass'd on,

And still I lov'd thee with encreasing love.

Never to living ear came sweeter sounds

Than when I heard thee by our own fire-side

First uttering without words a natural tune,

When thou, a feeding babe, didst in thy joy

Sing at thy Mothers breast. Month follow'd month,

And in the open fields my life was pass'd

And in the mountains, else I think that thou

Hadst been brought up upon thy father's knees.

—But we were playmates, Luke; among these hills,

As well thou know'st, in us the old and young

Have play'd together, nor with me didst thou

Lack any pleasure which a boy can know."