THREE years she grew in sun and shower, <br />Then Nature said, 'A lovelier flower <br />On earth was never sown; <br />This Child I to myself will take; <br />She shall be mine, and I will make <br />A Lady of my own. <br /> <br />'Myself will to my darling be <br />Both law and impulse: and with me <br />The Girl, in rock and plain <br />In earth and heaven, in glade and bower, <br />Shall feel an overseeing power <br />To kindle or restrain. <br /> <br />'She shall be sportive as the fawn <br />That wild with glee across the lawn <br />Or up the mountain springs; <br />And her's shall be the breathing balm, <br />And her's the silence and the calm <br />Of mute insensate things. <br /> <br />'The floating clouds their state shall lend <br />To her; for her the willow bend; <br />Nor shall she fail to see <br />Even in the motions of the Storm <br />Grace that shall mold the Maiden's form <br />By silent sympathy. <br /> <br />'The stars of midnight shall be dear <br />To her; and she shall lean her ear <br />In many a secret place <br />Where rivulets dance their wayward round, <br />And beauty born of murmuring sound <br />Shall pass into her face. <br /> <br />'And vital feelings of delight <br />Shall rear her form to stately height, <br />Her virgin bosom swell; <br />Such thoughts to Lucy I will give <br />While she and I together live <br />Here in this happy dell.' <br /> <br />Thus Nature spake---The work was done--- <br />How soon my Lucy's race was run! <br />She died, and left to me <br />This heath, this calm, and quiet scene; <br />The memory of what has been, <br />And never more will be.<br /><br />William Wordsworth<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/three-years-she-grew/
