Goblin Market and Other Poems (1862)/Cousin Kate
COUSIN KATE.
I was a cottage maidenHardened by sun and air,Contented with my cottage mates,Not mindful I was fair.Why did a great lord find me out,And praise my flaxen hair?Why did a great lord find me outTo fill my heart with care?
He lured me to his palace home—Woe's me for joy thereof—To lead a shameless shameful life,His plaything and his love.He wore me like a silken knot,He changed me like a glove; So now I moan, an unclean thing,Who might have been a dove.
O Lady Kate, my cousin Kate,You grew more fair than I:He saw you at your father's gate,Chose you, and cast me by.He watched your steps along the lane,Your work among the rye;He lifted you from mean estateTo sit with him on high.
Because you were so good and pureHe bound you with his ring:The neighbours called you good and pure,Call me an outcast thing.Even so I sit and howl in dust,You sit in gold and sing:Now which of us has tenderer heart?You had the stronger wing.
O cousin Kate, my love was true,Your love was writ in sand:If he had fooled not me but you,If you stood where I stand,He'd not have won me with his loveNor bought me with his land;I would have spit into his faceAnd not have taken his hand.
Yet I've a gift you have not got,And seem not like to get:For all your clothes and wedding-ringI've little doubt you fret.My fair-haired son, my shame, my pride,Cling closer, closer yet:Your father would give lands for oneTo wear his coronet.