Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, DOVECOTT MILL: 7. YOUTH AND MAIDEN, by PHOEBE CARY


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

DOVECOTT MILL: 7. YOUTH AND MAIDEN, by                 Poet Analysis     Poet's Biography
First Line: A half score years have sped away
Last Line: And the gardener and bethy live alone.
Subject(s): Growth


A half score years have sped away
Since Robert and Bethy used to play
About the yard and the mill, all day.

For time must go, whatever we do;
And the boy as it went, to manhood grew,
Steady and honest, good and true.

Going on with the mill, when his father died;
He lived untempted there, untried,
Knowing little of life beside.

Striving not to be rich or great,
Never questioning fortune or fate,
Contented slowly to earn, and wait.

Doing the work that was near his hand,
Still of Bethy he thought and planned,
To him the flower of all the land.

And tall shy Bethy more quiet seems,
With a tenderer light her soft eye beams,
And her thoughts are vague as the dream of dreams.

Oft she sings in an undertone
Of fears and sorrows not her own, --
The pains that love-lorn maids have known.

Does she think as she breathes the tender sigh,
Of the lover that's coming, by and by?
If she will not tell you, how should I?

And when she walks in the evening bland
Over the rich Squire's pleasant land,
Does she long to be a lady, grand,

And to have her fingers, soft and white,
Lie in her lap, with jewels bright,
And with never a task from morn till night?

Often, walking about the place,
With bended head and thoughtful face,
She meets the owner face to face.

Sometimes he eyes her wistfully,
As blushing with rustic modesty,
She drops him a pretty courtesy,

And looks as if inclined to say
Some friendly word to bid her stay,
Then, silent, turns abrupt away.

And though to speak she never dares,
She is sad to think that no one cares
For the lonely man, with thin gray hairs.

The good-wife, just as the girl was grown,
Went from the places she had known,
And the gardener and Bethy live alone.





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