Three years she grew in sun and shower, Then Nature said, "A lovelier flower On earth was never sown; This Child I to myself will take; She shall be mine, and I will make 5 A Lady of my own. "Myself will to my darling be Both law and impulse: [1] and with me The Girl, in rock and plain, In earth and heaven, in glade and bower, 10 Shall feel an overseeing power To kindle or restrain. "She shall be sportive as the fawn That wild with glee across the lawn Or up the mountain springs; 15 And her's shall be the breathing balm, And her's the silence and the calm Of mute insensate things. "The floating clouds their state shall lend To her; for her the willow bend; 20 Nor shall she fail to see Even in the motions of the Storm Grace that shall mould the Maiden's form [2] By silent sympathy. "The stars of midnight shall be dear 25 To her; and she shall lean her ear In many a secret place Where rivulets dance their wayward round, And beauty born of murmuring sound [A] Shall pass into her face. 30 "And vital feelings of delight Shall rear her form to stately height, Her virgin bosom swell; Such thoughts to Lucy I will give While she and I together live 35 Here in this happy dell." Thus Nature spake--The work was done-- How soon my Lucy's race was run! She died, and left to me This heath, this calm, and quiet scene; 40 The memory of what has been, And never more will be. [B] * * * * * VARIANTS ON THE TEXT [Variant 1: 1800. Her Teacher I myself will be, She is my darling;--... MS. 1801, and the edition of 1802. The edition of 1805 returns to the text of 1800.] [Variant 2: 1800. A reading--printed in the edition of 1800, but replaced in its list of 'errata' by that given in the text--may be quoted here, A beauty that shall mould her form ... 1800.] * * * * * FOOTNOTES ON THE TEXT [Footnote A: Compare Dryden's 'Indian Emperor', iv. 3.--Ed.] [Footnote B: On Oct 9, 1800, S. T. Coleridge, in writing to Sir Humphry Davy of his own 'Christabel', said, "I would rather have written 'Ruth', and 'Nature's Lady,' than a million such poems." This poem was printed in 'The Morning Post', March 2nd, 1801.--Ed.] * * * * * "A SLUMBER DID MY SPIRIT SEAL" Composed 1799.--Published 1800 [Written in Germany.--I.F.] Included among the "Poems of the Imagination." [A]--Ed. A slumber did my spirit seal; I had no human fears: She seemed a thing that could not feel The touch of earthly years. No motion has she now, no force; 5 She neither hears nor sees; Rolled round in earth's diurnal course, With rocks, and stones, and trees. [B]