For she look’d back on comforts, and would say,
‘I wrong’d thee, Ellen,’ and then turn away:
Thus, for my age’s good, my youth was tried,
And this my fortune till my mother died.
“So, amid sorrow much and little cheer -
A common case - I pass’d my twentieth year;
For these are frequent evils; thousands share
An equal grief - the like domestic care.
“Then in my days of bloom, of health, and youth,
One, much above me, vow’d his love and truth: