Page:The Bab Ballads.djvu/33

 TO A LITTLE MAID.

OME with me, little maid, &emsp;Nay, shrink not, thus afraid—
 * I'll harm thee not!

Fly not, my love, from me— I have a home for thee—
 * A fairy grot,
 * Where mortal eye
 * Can rarely pry,

There shall thy dwelling be!

List to me, while I tell The pleasures of that cell,
 * Oh, little maid!

What though its couch be rude, Homely the only food
 * Within its shade?
 * No thought of care
 * Can enter there,

No vulgar swain intrude!

Come with me, little maid, Come to the rocky shade
 * I love to sing;

Live with us, maiden rare— Come, for we "want" thee there,
 * Thou elfin thing,
 * To work thy spell,
 * In some cool cell

In stately Pentonville!