My Father (extracts from ‘the female vagrant’)



By Derwent's side my father's cottage stood'

My father was a pious man and good.

Still, to cruel injuries he became a prey

till all his substance fell into decay.

'Twas a hard change, an evil time was come,

We had no hope, no relief from noisy drum.

The swans to meet me came at water side

and knew not why, my father happy died.

An honest man by honest parents bred

and in his hearing, there my prayers I said.

Can I forget that miserable hour?

There close by my mother in their native bower.

Oh! dreadful price of being to resign

in want's lonely cave till death do pine.

I looked and looked along the silent air

remote from man and storms of mortal care.

Nor pain nor pity in my bosom raised,

Memory dismissed, again on open day I gazed.




William Wordsworth (1770-1850)