CHARLES LAMB

��Hestei

maidens such as Hester die Their place ye may not well supply, Though ye among a thousand try With vain endeavour.

A month or more hath she been dead, Yet cannot I by force be led To think upon the wormy bed And her together.

A springy motion in her gait, A rising step, did indicate Of pride and joy no common rate, That flush'd her spirit :

I know not by what name beside I shall it call : if 'twas not pride, It was a joy to that allied, She did inherit.

Her parents held the Quaker rule, Which doth the human feeling cool ; But she was train'd in Nature's school; Nature had blest her.

A waking eye, a prying mind ; A heart that stirs, is hard to bind ; A hawk's keen sight ye cannot blind; Ye could not Hester.

My sprightly neighbour! gone before To that unknown and silent shore, Shall we not meet, as heretofore, Some summer morning

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