DREAM OF THE CITY SHOPWOMAN

‘ Twere sweet to have a comrade here,

Who'd vow to love this garreteer,

By city people's snap and sneer

Tried oft and hard!

We'd rove a truant cock and hen

To some snug solitary glen,

And never be seen to haunt again

This teeming yard.

Within a cot of thatch and clay

We'd list the flitting pipers play,

Our lives a twine of good and gay

Enwreathed discreetly;

Our blithest deeds so neighbouring wise

That doves should coo in soft surprise,

“These must belong to Paradise

Who live so sweetly.”

Our clock should be the closing flowers,

Our sprinkle-bath the passing showers,

Our church the alleyed willow bowers,

The truth our theme;

And infant shapes might soon abound:

Their shining heads would dot us round

Like mushroom balls on grassy ground...

— But all is dream!

O God, that creatures framed to feel

A yearning nature's strong appeal

Should writhe on this eternal wheel

In rayless grime;

And vainly note, with wan regret,

Each star of early promise set;

Till Death relieves, and they forget

Their one Life's time!