Part 1 — LUCY GRAY
Reading edition
Or Solitude
Oft I had heard of Lucy Gray: And, when I crossed the wild, I chanced to see, at break of day, The solitary child.
No mate, no comrade Lucy knew; She dwelt on a wide moor, The sweetest thing that ever grew Beside a human door!
You yet may spy the fawn at play, The hare upon the green; But the sweet face of Lucy Gray Will never more be seen.
"To-night will be a stormy night,— You to the town must go; And take a lantern, Child, to light Your mother through the snow."
"That, Father, will I gladly do: 'Tis scarcely afternoon,— The minster-clock has just struck two, And yonder is the moon!"
At this the Father raised his hook, And snapped a fagot-brand. He plied his work;—and Lucy took The lantern in her hand.
Not blither is the mountain roe: With many a wanton stroke Her feet disperse the powdery snow, That rises up like smoke.
The storm came on before its time: She wandered up and down: And many a hill did Lucy climb: But never reached the town.
The wretched parents all that night Went shouting far and wide; But there was neither sound nor sight To serve them for a guide.
At daybreak on the hill they stood That overlooked the moor; And thence they saw the bridge of wood, A furlong from their door.
They wept,—and, turning homeward, cried, "In heaven we all shall meet;" When in the snow the mother spied The print of Lucy's feet.
Then downwards from the steep hill's edge They tracked the footmarks small: And through the broken hawthorn-hedge, And by the low stone-wall;
And then an open field they crossed— The marks were still the same— They tracked them on, nor ever lost; And to the bridge they came.
They followed from the snowy bank Those footmarks, one by one, Into the middle of the plank; And further there were none!
—Yet some maintain that to this day She is a living child; That you may see sweet Lucy Gray Upon the lonesome wild.
O'er rough and smooth she trips along, And never looks behind; And sings a solitary song That whistles in the wind.
William Wordsworth [1770-1850]