Edward Cracroft Lefroy: His Life and Poems including a Reprint of Echoes from Theocritus: By Wilfred Austin Gill: With a Critical Estimate of the Sonnets by the late John Addington Symonds |
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 | Edward Cracroft Lefroy: His Life and Poems |  |
97
V
A WOODLAND STREAM, IV
Forgive me, gentle creatures of the stream,
And ye that in my fancy guard their bliss;
Account me not a murderer, nor deem
My heart's offending darker than it is;
The trespass in my thought is only this—
To ask a boon it doth not misbeseem
Your purity to grant, though well I wis
I am not worthy of a gift supreme.
Sinful I come from worlds where sin is rife,
But not with foul intent your peace to ban;
I would but use the privilege of life,
And joy with Nature's joy while body can,
Yea, feel, in spite of all that breedeth strife,
Her spirit still has fellowship with man.
| Edward Cracroft Lefroy: His Life and Poems | |