Page:Poems that every child should know (ed. Burt, 1904).djvu/116

78 Then her countenance all over

Pale again as death did prove:

But he clasp'd her like a lover,

And he cheer'd her soul with love.

So she strove against her weakness,

Tho' at times her spirits sank;

Shaped her heart with woman's meekness

To all duties of her rank;

And a gentle consort made he,

And her gentle mind was such

That she grew a noble lady,

And the people loved her much.

But a trouble weigh'd upon her

And perplex'd her, night and morn,

With the burden of an honour

Unto which she was not born.

Faint she grew and ever fainter,

As she murmur'd, "Oh, that he

Were once more that landscape-painter

Which did win my heart from me!"

So she droop'd and droop'd before him,

Fading slowly from his side;

Three fair children first she bore him,

Then before her time she died.

Weeping, weeping late and early,

Walking up and pacing down,

Deeply mourn'd the Lord of Burleigh,

Burleigh-house by Stamford-town.