Classic Poem

As I was walking in the fields last Tuesday of all days, in a hollow under the quiet wood I heard two talking together. I drew nearer to them until I was at the very place, and who should be there conversing but my sweetheart with her mother. " My dear daughter, here you are by me with your hands free, your costume fair, handsomely set up — and I mean to marry you off. You shall mount your horse, my delicate maiden, with obsequious grooms to curry it, and you shall have worldly wealth of yellow gold and bright silver at your side." " Though I had a share in the lands of India, the silks of Persia, the gold of Peru, I prefer the lad I love, and shall stand true to him." " Oh is it so? and that's your purpose? Then you shall make your bed among thorns; unless you mark my words, it will be a bitter play if you trust yourself to the Slender Lad." " To the Slender Lad I will trust myself, mother, to tell you true; I shall leave wealth to misers, and trust myself to him who is the flower of the shire, with his white face and his yellow hair, and in his cheeks are two roses — happy is the girl who sleeps the night in his arms. " If my love has gone far over the seas, if he has gone and left me on the shore, yet may St. David give him good fortune and guide him in every place. I shall not weep, no, nor fret, nor cry out after him; for if it is so fated for me, my dear love will come back yet. " With his own hand he wrote a letter, and on its back was a wax seal, and nothing broke my heart like reading it morning and evening. In it there are three letters which are taking away my looks and figure; and unless he comes back to spell them out they will bring me down to my grave."