Chapter 25

To see a man tread over graves I hold it no good mark; 390 'Tis wicked in the sun and moon, And bad luck in the dark!

You see that grave? The Lord he gives, The Lord, he takes away: O Sir! the child of my old age 395 Lies there as cold as clay.

Except that grave, you scarce see one That was not dug by me; I'd rather dance upon 'em all Than tread upon these three! 400

'Aye, Sexton! 'tis a touching tale.' You, Sir! are but a lad; This month I'm in my seventieth year, And still it makes me sad.

And Mary's sister told it me, 405 For three good hours and more; Though I had heard it, in the main, From Edward's self, before.

Well! it passed off! the gentle Ellen Did well nigh dote on Mary; 410 And she went oftener than before, And Mary loved her more and more: She managed all the dairy.

To market she on market-days, To church on Sundays came; 415 All seemed the same: all seemed so, Sir! But all was not the same!

Had Ellen lost her mirth? Oh! no! But she was seldom cheerful; And Edward looked as if he thought 420 That Ellen's mirth was fearful.

When by herself, she to herself Must sing some merry rhyme; She could not now be glad for hours, Yet silent all the time. 425

And when she soothed her friend, through all Her soothing words 'twas plain She had a sore grief of her own, A haunting in her brain.

And oft she said, I'm not grown thin! 430 And then her wrist she spanned; And once when Mary was down-cast, She took her by the hand, And gazed upon her, and at first She gently pressed her hand; 435

Then harder, till her grasp at length Did gripe like a convulsion! 'Alas!' said she, 'we ne'er can be Made happy by compulsion!'

And once her both arms suddenly 440 Round Mary's neck she flung, And her heart panted, and she felt The words upon her tongue.

She felt them coming, but no power Had she the words to smother: 445 And with a kind of shriek she cried, 'Oh Christ! you're like your mother!'

So gentle Ellen now no more Could make this sad house cheery; And Mary's melancholy ways 450 Drove Edward wild and weary.

Lingering he raised his latch at eve, Though tired in heart and limb: He loved no other place, and yet Home was no home to him. 455

One evening he took up a book, And nothing in it read; Then flung it down, and groaning cried, 'O! Heaven! that I were dead.'

Mary looked up into his face, 460 And nothing to him said; She tried to smile, and on his arm Mournfully leaned her head.

And he burst into tears, and fell Upon his knees in prayer: 465 'Her heart is broke! O God! my grief, It is too great to bear!'

'Twas such a foggy time as makes Old sextons, Sir! like me, Rest on their spades to cough; the spring 470 Was late uncommonly.

And then the hot days, all at once, They came, we knew not how: You looked about for shade, when scarce A leaf was on a bough. 475

It happened then ('twas in the bower, A furlong up the wood: Perhaps you know the place, and yet I scarce know how you should,)

No path leads thither, 'tis not nigh 480 To any pasture-plot; But clustered near the chattering brook, Lone hollies marked the spot.

Those hollies of themselves a shape As of an arbour took, 485 A close, round arbour; and it stands Not three strides from a brook.

Within this arbour, which was still With scarlet berries hung, Were these three friends, one Sunday morn, 490 Just as the first bell rung.

'Tis sweet to hear a brook, 'tis sweet To hear the Sabbath-bell, 'Tis sweet to hear them both at once, Deep in a woody dell. 495

His limbs along the moss, his head Upon a mossy heap, With shut-up senses, Edward lay: That brook e'en on a working day Might chatter one to sleep. 500

And he had passed a restless night. And was not well in health; The women sat down by his side, And talked as 'twere by stealth.

'The Sun peeps through the close thick leaves, 505 See, dearest Ellen! see! 'Tis in the leaves, a little sun, No bigger than your ee;

'A tiny sun, and it has got A perfect glory too; 510 Ten thousand threads and hairs of light, Make up a glory gay and bright Round that small orb, so blue.'

And then they argued of those rays, What colour they might be; 515 Says this, 'They're mostly green'; says that, 'They're amber-like to me.'

So they sat chatting, while bad thoughts Were troubling Edward's rest; But soon they heard his hard quick pants, 520 And the thumping in his breast.

'A mother too!' these self-same words Did Edward mutter plain; His face was drawn back on itself, With horror and huge pain. 525

Both groaned at once, for both knew well What thoughts were in his mind; When he waked up, and stared like one That hath been just struck blind.

He sat upright; and ere the dream 530 Had had time to depart, 'O God, forgive me!' (he exclaimed) 'I have torn out her heart.'

Then Ellen shrieked, and forthwith burst Into ungentle laughter; 535 And Mary shivered, where she sat, And never she smiled after.

1797-1809.

_Carmen reliquum in futurum tempus relegatum._ To-morrow! and To-morrow! and To-morrow!

FOOTNOTES:

[267:1] Parts III and IV of the _Three Graves_ were first published in _The Friend_, No. VI, September 21, 1809. They were included in _Sibylline Leaves_, 1817, 1828, 1829, and 1834. Parts I and II, which were probably written in the spring of 1798, at the same time as Parts III and IV, were first published, from an autograph MS. copy, in _Poems_, 1893. [For evidence of date compare ll. 255-8 with Dorothy Wordsworth's _Alfoxden Journal_ for March 20, 24, and April 6, 8.] The original MS. of Parts III and IV is not forthcoming. The MS. of the poem as published in _The Friend_ is in the handwriting of Miss Sarah Stoddart (afterwards Mrs. Hazlitt), and is preserved with other 'copy' of _The Friend_ (of which the greater part is in the handwriting of Miss Sarah Hutchinson) in the Forster Collection which forms part of the Victoria and Albert Museum, South Kensington. The preface and emendations are in the handwriting of S. T. C. The poem was reprinted in the _British Minstrel_, Glasgow, 1821 as 'a modern ballad of the very first rank'. In a marginal note in Mr. Samuel's copy of _Sibylline Leaves_ Coleridge writes:--'This very poem was selected, notwithstanding the preface, as a proof of my judgment and poetic diction, and a fair specimen of the style of my poems generally (see the _Mirror_): nay! the very words of the preface were used, omitting the _not_,' &c. See for this and other critical matter, _Lyrical Ballads_, 1798, edited by Thomas Hutchinson, 1898. _Notes_, p. 257.

[268:1] in the common ballad metre _MS._

[268:2] mistaking _The Friend_.

[269:1] In the first issue of _The Friend_, No. VI, September 21, 1809, the poem was thus introduced:--'As I wish to commence the important Subject of--_The Principles_ of political Justice with a separate number of THE FRIEND, and shall at the same time comply with the wishes communicated to me by one of my female Readers, who writes as the representative of many others, I shall conclude this Number with the following Fragment, or the third and fourth [second and third _MS. S. T. C._] parts of a Tale consisting of six. The two last parts may be given hereafter, if the present should appear to have afforded pleasure, and to have answered the purpose of a relief and amusement to my Readers. The story as it is contained in the first and second parts is as follows: _Edward a young farmer_, etc.'

[271:1] It is uncertain whether this stanza is erased, or merely blotted in the MS.

[271:2] _Othello_ iii. 3.

[271:3] The words 'Part II' are not in the MS.

[276:1] In the MS. of _The Friend_, Part III is headed:--'The Three Graves. A Sexton's Tale. A Fragment.' A MS. note _erased_ in the handwriting of S. T. C. is attached:--'N. B. Written for me by Sarah Stoddart before her brother was an entire Blank. I have not _voluntarily_ been guilty of any desecration of holy _Names_.' In _The Friend_, in _Sibylline Leaves_, in 1828, 1829, and 1834, the poem is headed 'The Three Graves, &c.' The heading 'Part III' first appeared in 1893.

LINENOTES:

[4] In the silent summer heat MS. alternative reading.

[14]

Why these three graves all in a row

MS. alternative reading.

Stretch out their dark and gloomy length

MS. erased.

[33] turned] strove MS. erased.

[49] happy] wedding MS. variant.

[81] A deadly] The ghastly MS. erased.