to tree;
And when he sees another girl
He never thinks of me.

I USED TO LOVE, 4abcb and 4abcb, 4: A maiden voices her complaint
against the "dark-eyed girl," her successful rival, and her wish for
"coffin, shroud, and grave," to end her woe.

THE BUTCHER'S BOY, iii, 4aabb, 8ca: A maiden voices her complaint
against the New York butcher's boy, once her childhood playmate and
lover, who now has forsaken her for a wealthier girl; then goes upstairs
and hangs herself, leaving a note pinned on her breast.

THE PALE AMARANTHUS, 4aabb, 5: A maiden's complaint against her
faithless lover, whom she vows to forget.

I HAVE FINISHED HIM A LETTER, 4abcb and 4abcb, 7: A maiden's complaint
against her lover, who has forsaken her for Annie Lee.

CAN YOU THEN LOVE ANOTHER?, ii, 3abcbdefe and 3abcb, 3: A lorn maiden's
plaint:

Say, must I be forgotten,
Cast like a flower aside?
Have I from memory faded,
Once all your joy and pride?

TO CHEER THE HEART, ii, 3abcbdefe and 3abcbdede, 4: A maiden's complaint
against her faithless lover. He is the son of a "rich merchant," she,
the daughter of a "laboring man." "But why need I care? For I have
another man."

A POOR STRANGE GIRL, 4aabb, 7: The poet one May morning overhears a
damsel complaining against her faithless lover, and against her loss of
friends and home.

PRETTY POLLY, 4aabb, 5: A lover recites his visit one evening to her
home, where he sees his rivals enjoying her company. He retires to a
grove, sucks comfort from his whiskey bottle, and wishes that she were
drowned, floating on the tide, that he, like a fisherman, might draw her
in his net to shore.

HANG DOWN YOUR HEAD AND CRY, 4aabb, 2: A fragment (two quatrains),
apparently a complaint of a lover to his faithless sweetheart.

THE DYING GIRL'S MESSAGE, ii, 4abcb, 15: Her death-song to her mother,
breathing forgiveness for her faithless lover, and closing with a vision
of Christ waiting to receive her.

A second version contains only an elaboration of this last motif.

THE COLD, DARK SCENES OF WINTER, 3abcb, 9: In the winter the lover woos
his fair, but is rejected. In the spring, her mind changing, she writes
him of her love for him. He replies that meanwhile his heart has changed
in turn and that he is already married to another.

LOVING HANNER, 3abcb, 9: The lover sings his devotion to her, but in the
face of her coolness and her parents' opposition, vows to go on a lon