Cousin Kate
 

    I WAS a cottage maiden
        Hardened 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 out,
        To 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 estate
        To sit with him on high.

    Because you were so good and pure
        He bound you with his ring:
    The neighbors call 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 love
        Nor bought me with his land;
    I would have spit into his face
        And 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-ring
        I've little doubt you fret.
    My fair-haired son, my shame, my pride,
        Cling closer, closer yet:
    Your father would give his lands for one
        To wear his coronet.

    Christina Rossetti