The Ugly Princess

My parents bow, and lead them forth, For all the crowd to see— Ah well! the people might not care To cheer a dwarf like me. They little know how I could love, How I could plan and toil, To swell those drudges' scanty gains, Their mites of rye and oil. They little know what dreams have been My playmates, night and day; Of equal kindness, helpful care, A mother's perfect sway. Now earth to earth in convent walls, To earth in churchyard sod: I was not good enough for man, And so am given to God. Bertrich in the Eifel, 1851.