Page:The Excursion, Wordsworth, 1814.djvu/314

288 By dances round its trunk.—And if the sky

Permit, like honours, dance and song, are paid

To the Twelfth Night; beneath the frosty Stars

Or the clear Moon. The Queen of these gay sports,

If not in beauty yet in sprightly air,

Was hapless Ellen.—No one touched the ground

So deftly, and the nicest Maiden's locks

Less gracefully were braided;—but this praise,

Methinks, would better suit another place.

She loved,—and fondly deemed herself beloved.

The road is dim, the current unperceived,

The weakness painful and most pitiful,

By which a virtuous Woman, in pure youth,

May be delivered to distress and shame.

Such fate was hers.—The last time Ellen danced,

Among her Equals, round ,

She bore a secret burthen; and full soon

Was left to tremble for a breaking vow,—

Then, to bewail a sternly-broken vow,

Alone, within her widowed Mother's house.

It was the season sweet, of budding leaves,

Of days advancing tow'rds their utmost length,