Poem by William Schwenck Gilbert

The Bab Ballads. To a Little Maid by a Policeman

Come with me, little maid,
Nay, shrink not, thus afraid—
      I’ll harm thee not!
Fly not, my love, from me—
I have a home for thee—
      A fairy grot,
         Where mortal eye
         Can rarely pry,
There shall thy dwelling be!

List to me, while I tell
The pleasures of that cell,
      Oh, little maid!
What though its couch be rude,
Homely the only food
      Within its shade?
         No thought of care
         Can enter there,
No vulgar swain intrude!

Come with me, little maid,
Come to the rocky shade
      I love to sing;
Live with us, maiden rare—
Come, for we “want” thee there,
      Thou elfin thing,
         To work thy spell,
         In some cool cell
In stately Pentonville!

1. The Bab Ballads. The Periwinkle Girl
2. The Bab Ballads. The Folly of Brown
3. The Bab Ballads. General John
4. The Bab Ballads. Haunted
5. The Bab Ballads. Disillusioned

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