Poems (Craik)/A "Mercenary" Marriage

by Dinah Maria Craik

A "MERCENARY" MARRIAGE.

HE moves as light across the grass
 As moves my shadow large and tall;
And like my shadow, close yet free,
The thought of her aye follows me,
 My little maid of Moreton Hall.

No matter how or where we loved,
 Or when we 'll wed, or what befall;
I only feel she 's mine at last,
I only know I 'll hold her fast,
 Though to dust crumbles Moreton Hall.

Her pedigree—good sooth, 'tis long!
 Her grim sires stare from every wall;
And centuries of ancestral grace
Revive in her sweet girlish face,
 As meek she glides through Moreton Hall.

Whilst I have—nothing; save, perhaps,
 Some worthless heaps of idle gold,
And a true heart—the which her eye
Through glittering dross spied, womanly,
 Therefore they say her heart was sold!

I laugh—she laughs—the hills and vales
 Laugh as we ride 'neath chestnuts tall,
Or start the deer that silent graze,
And look up, large-eyed, with soft gaze,
 At the fair maid of Moreton Hall;—

We let the neighbors talk their fill,
 For life is sweet, and love is strong,
And two, close knit in marriage ties,
The whole world's shams may well despise,—
 Its folly, madness, shame, and wrong.

We are not proud, with a fool's pride,
 Nor cowards—to be held in thrall
By pelf or lineage, rank or lands:—
One honest heart, two honest hands,
 Are worth far more than Moreton Hall.

Therefore, we laugh to scorn—we two—
 The bars that weaker souls appal:
I take her hand, and hold it fast—
Knowing she 'll love me to the last—
 My dearest maid of Moreton Hall.