| Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900. |
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| Charles Lamb. 1775–1834 |
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| 578. Hester |
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| WHEN maidens such as Hester die | |
| Their place ye may not well supply, | |
| Though ye among a thousand try | |
| With vain endeavour. | |
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| A month or more hath she been dead, | 5 |
| Yet cannot I by force be led | |
| To think upon the wormy bed | |
| And her together. | |
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| A springy motion in her gait, | |
| A rising step, did indicate | 10 |
| Of pride and joy no common rate, | |
| That flush'd her spirit: | |
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| I know not by what name beside | |
| I shall it call: if 'twas not pride, | |
| It was a joy to that allied, | 15 |
| She did inherit. | |
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| Her parents held the Quaker rule, | |
| Which doth the human feeling cool; | |
| But she was train'd in Nature's school; | |
| Nature had blest her. | 20 |
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| A waking eye, a prying mind; | |
| A heart that stirs, is hard to bind; | |
| A hawk's keen sight ye cannot blind; | |
| Ye could not Hester. | |
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| My sprightly neighbour! gone before | 25 |
| To that unknown and silent shore, | |
| Shall we not meet, as heretofore, | |
| Some summer morning— | |
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| When from thy cheerful eyes a ray | |
| Hath struck a bliss upon the day, | 30 |
| A bliss that would not go away, | |
| A sweet forewarning? | |
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