Thomas Humphry Ward, ed. The English Poets. 1880–1918.rnVol. V. Browning to Rupert Brooke
Richard Monckton Milnes, Lord Houghton (18091885)The Brownie
A
Attended with his service a lonely servant-maid.
Whose youth had left her early and little left behind.
Arose this unseen stranger her labours to fulfil.
The meal was always ready, the room was always swept.
He gave her words of kindness and snatches of sweet song;—
From times when gaunt magicians and dwarfs and giants were;—
A sense of trust and pleasure, where she had feared at first.
To see this faithful being distinct in outward form.
It could be nothing fearful, it could be nothing ill.
Then warning and entreaty, but all in vain, he tried.
Until, as one outwearied, but still lamenting sore,
When from the small high window the full-moon light should fall.
How there her phantom Lover his presence would unfold;
The Babe she bore and murdered some thirteen years before.