Friend, servant, child:  just this
My standing at the Hall;
The other servants call me ‘Miss,’
My Lady calls me ‘Margaret,’
With her clear voice musical. 310
She never chides when I forget
This or that; she never chides. 
Except when people come to stay,
(And that’s not often) at the Hall,
I sit with her all day
And ride out when she rides. 
She sings to me and makes me sing;
Sometimes I read to her,
Sometimes we merely sit and talk. 
She noticed once my ring 320
And made me tell its history: 
That evening in our garden walk
She said she should infer
The ring had been my father’s first,
Then my mother’s, given for me
To the nurse who nursed
My mother in her misery,
That so quite certainly
Some one might know me, who... 
Then she was silent, and I too. 330

I hate when people come: 
The women speak and stare
And mean to be so civil. 
This one will stroke my hair,
That one will pat my cheek
And praise my Lady’s kindness,
Expecting me to speak;
I like the proud ones best
Who sit as struck with blindness,
As if I wasn’t there. 340
But if any gentleman
Is staying at the Hall
(Though few come prying here),
My Lady seems to fear
Some downright dreadful evil,
And makes me keep my room
As closely as she can: 
So I hate when people come,
It is so troublesome. 
In spite of all her care, 350
Sometimes to keep alive
I sometimes do contrive
To get out in the grounds
For a whiff of wholesome air,
Under the rose you know: 
It’s charming to break bounds,
Stolen waters are sweet,
And what’s the good of feet
If for days they mustn’t go? 
Give me a longer tether, 360
Or I may break from it.

Now I have eyes and ears
And just some little wit: 
‘Almost my Lady’s child;’
I recollect she smiled,
Sighed and blushed together;
Then her story of the ring
Sounds not improbable,
She told it me so well
It seemed the actual thing:—­ 370
Oh, keep your counsel close,
But I guess under the rose,
In long past summer weather
When the world was blossoming,
And the rose upon its thorn: 
I guess not who he was
Flawed honour like a glass,
And made my life forlorn,
But my Mother, Mother, Mother,
Oh, I know her from all other. 380

My Lady, you might trust
Your daughter with your fame. 
Trust me, I would not shame
Our honourable name,
For I have noble blood
Though I was bred in dust
And brought up in the mud. 
I will not press my claim,
Just leave me where you will: 
But you might trust your daughter, 390
For blood is thicker than water
And you’re my mother still.