There came with merry voice
A foaming streamlet glancing by,
It seem’d to say “Rejoice!”
My youthful wishes all fulfill’d, 85
Wishes matured by thoughtful choice,
I stood an Inmate of this vale,
How could I but rejoice?
“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