Her constant tread:

While ever at my side,

Frail and sad, with grey bowed head,

The beggar-woman, the yearning-eyed

Inexorable love goes lagging.

The wild young heifer, glancing distraught,

With a strange new knocking of life at her side

Runs seeking a loneliness.

The little grain draws down the earth to hide.

Nay, even the slumberous egg, as it labours under the shell, [p. xv]