Page:The Excursion, Wordsworth, 1814.djvu/319

293 And with contented spirit undertook

A Foster-Mother's office.

'Tis, perchance,

Unknown to you that in these simple Vales

The natural feeling of equality

Is by domestic service unimpaired;

Yet, though such service be, with us, removed

From sense of degradation, not the less

The ungentle mind can easily find means

To impose severe restraints and laws unjust:

Which hapless Ellen now was doomed to feel.

In selfish blindness, for I will not say

In naked and deliberate cruelty,

The Pair, whose Infant she was bound to nurse,

Forbad her all communion with her own.

They argued that such meeting would disturb

The Mother's mind, distract her thoughts, and thus

Unfit her for her duty—in which dread,

Week after week, the mandate was enforced.

—So near!—yet not allowed, upon that sight

To fix her eyes—alas! 'twas hard to bear!

But worse affliction must be borne—far worse;