Page:Poems by William Wordsworth (1815) Volume 1.djvu/222

162 What's that which on your arm you bear?"

She answered, soon as she the question heard,

"A simple burthen, Sir, a little Singing-bird."

And, thus continuing, she said,

"I had a Son, who many a day

Sailed on the seas; but he is dead;

In Denmark he was cast away;

And I have travelled far as Hull, to see

What clothes he might have left, or other property.

"The Bird and Cage they both were his;

'Twas my Son's Bird; and neat and trim

He kept it: many voyages

His Singing-bird hath gone with him;

When last he sailed he left the Bird behind;

As it might be, perhaps, from bodings of his mind.

"He to a Fellow-lodger's care

Had left it, to be watched and fed,

Till he came back again; and there

I found it when my Son was dead;

And now, God help me for my little wit!

I trail it with me, Sir! he took so much delight in it."