Page:Poems by William Wordsworth (1815) Volume 2.djvu/69

61 Oh! it was a time forlorn

When the Fatherless was born—

Give her wings that she may fly,

Or she sees her Infant die!

Swords that are with slaughter wild

Hunt the Mother and the Child.

Who will take them from the light?

—Yonder is a Man in sight—

Yonder is a House—but where?

No, they must not enter there.

To the Caves, and to the Brooks,

To the Clouds of Heaven she looks;

She is speechless, but her eyes

Pray in ghostly agonies.

Blissful Mary, Mother mild,

Maid and Mother undefiled,

Save a Mother and her Child!

Now Who is he that bounds with joy

On Carrock's side, a Shepherd Boy?

No thoughts hath he but thoughts that pass

Light as the wind along the grass.

Can this be He who hither came

In secret, like a smothered flame?