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!