Lucy Gray

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 faggot-band;   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 day-break on a 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 long 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.