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Classic and Contemporary Poetry


WELSH LUCY, OR THE DUKE OF MONMOUTH'S MOTHER by CHARLES TENNYSON TURNER

First Line: POOR LUCY WALTERS! WHO REMEMBERS THEE?
Last Line: TO VIEW EACH MORN, THE HEADSMAN'S WORLD BELOW.
Subject(s): MOTHERS; SCOTT, JAMES. DUKE OF MONMOUTH (1649-85); WALTERS, LUCY (1630-1658);

Poor Lucy Walters! who remembers thee?
Thy name is lost, though on thy native hill
Perchance they know it, yea, and see thee still;
But, in the outer world, how few there be
To speak of Monmouth's mother! To thy door
The tempter came, and thy young heart beguil'd;
Then came the birth of that half-royal child,
Who, when his feeble battle-shout was o'er,
Crept into lone Shag's Heath from lost Sedgemoor;
Then fell his kinsman's axe, whose triple blow
Thy spirit still hears! sore penance for that tryst
Of shame, which brought thy motherhood of woe;
Or sighs, at breaking of the mountain-mist,
To view each morn, the headsman's world below.



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