THE WEST-OF-WESSEX GIRL
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VERY West-of-Wessex girl,As blithe as blithe could be,Was once well-known to me,And she would laud her native town,And hope and hope that weMight sometime study up and downIts charms in company. But never I squired my Wessex girlIn jaunts to Hoe or streetWhen hearts were high in beat,Nor saw her in the marbled waysWhere market-people meetThat in her bounding early daysWere friendly with her feet. Yet now my West-of-Wessex girl,When midnight hammers slowFrom Andrew’s, blow by blow,As phantom draws me by the handTo the place—Plymouth Hoe—Where side by side in life, as planned,We never were to go! Begun in Plymouth, _March_ 1913.
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