TO MY NIECE DORA
By Dorothy Wordsworth
The following lines were written in Dora Wordsworth’s “Album,” in which Sir Walter Scott also wrote some verses.—Ed.
Confiding hopes of youthful hearts,
And each bright visionary scheme,
Shall here remain in vivid hues
The hues of a celestial dream.
The farewell of the laurelled Knight 5
Traced by a brave but tremulous hand,
Pledge of his truth and loyalty
Thro’ changeful years, unchanged shall stand.
But why should I inscribe my name,
No Poet I—no longer young? 10
The ambition of a loving heart
Makes garrulous the tongue.
Memorials of thy aged Friend
Dora thou dost not need;
And when the cold earth covers her 15
No flattery shall she heed.
Yet still a lurking wish prevails
That when from life we all have passed
The friends who loved thy Father’s name
On her’s a thought may cast. 20
Dorothy Wordsworth.
January 1827.