“AH! IF I WERE A LADY GAY”
The following two stanzas were added by Wordsworth to his sister’s poem, entitled The Cottager to her Infant—composed in 1805, and issued in 1815 (see vol. iii. pp. 74, 75); but they were never published in Wordsworth’s lifetime.—Ed.
Ah! if I were a lady gay
I should not grieve with thee to play;
Right gladly would I lie awake
Thy lively spirits to partake,
And ask no better cheer. 5
But, Babe! there’s none to work for me,
And I must rise to industry;
Soon as the cock begins to crow
Thy mother to the fold must go
To tend the sheep and kine. 10