s: Leave the last bone of all the carrion bare.


s: And hope the high song taught him: hope whose eyes


s: Can sound the seas unsoundable, the skies


s: What earth beholds not, hear what wind and sea


s: Hear not, and speak what all these crying in one


s: For in her sovereign eyelight all things are


s: Clear as the closest seen and kindlier star


s: That marries morn and even and winter and spring


s: For she can see the days of man, the birth


s: Of good and death of evil things on earth


s: Yea, she can hear and see, beyond all things


s: That lighten from before Time's thunderous wings


s: Through the awful circle of wheel-winged periods,


s: The tempest of the twilight of all Gods:


s: And higher than all the circling course they ran


s: And fear the song too taught him; fear to be


s: Worthless the dear love of the wind and sea


s: That bred him fearless, like a sea-mew reared


s: Where nought of wingless life may sing or shine.


s: Fear to wax worthless of that heaven he had


s: When all the life in all his limbs was glad


s: And all the drops in all his veins were wine


s: And all the pulses music; when his heart,


s: Singing, bade heaven and wind and sea bear part


s: In one live song's reiterance, and they bore:


s: Fear to go crownless of the flower he wore


s: When the winds loved him and the waters knew,


s: The blithest life that clove their blithe life through


s: With living limbs exultant, or held strife


s: More amorous than all dalliance aye anew


s: With the bright breath and strength of their large life,


s: With all strong wrath of all sheer winds that blew,


s: All glories of all storms of the air that fell


s: With roar from heaven of revel, and with hue


s: For when the red blast of their breath had made


s: All heaven aflush with light more dire than shade,


s: He felt it in his blood and eyes and hair


s: Burn as if all the fires of the earth and air


s: Had laid strong hold upon his flesh, and stung


s: The soul behind it as with serpent's tongue,


s: Forked like the loveliest lightnings: nor could bear


s: But hardly, half distraught with strong delight,


s: The joy that like a garment wrapped him round


s: At every loud leap earthward of the thunder


s: So seemed all heaven in hearing and in sight,


s: That something of its marvellous mirth and might


s: Moved even to madness, fledged as even for flight,


s: The blood and spirit of one but mortal boy.


s: So, clothed with love and fear that love makes great,


s: He set first foot upon the spring-flowered ways


s: And one dim dawn between the winter and spring,


s: In the sharp harsh wind harrying heaven and earth


s: To put back April that had borne his birth


s: From sunward on her sunniest shower-struck wing,


s: With tears and laughter for the dew-dropt thing,


s: One met him lovelier than all men may be,


s: God-featured, with god's eyes; and in their might


s: Somewhat that drew men's own to mar their sight,


s: Even of all eyes drawn toward him: and his mouth


s: Was as the very rose of all men's youth,


s: One rose of all the rose-beds in the world:


s: But round his brows the curls were snakes that curled,


s: And like his tongue a serpent's; and his voice


s: From his bowed eyes seemed any light to come,


s: Nor his meek lips for blood or tears to thirst:


s: But as one blind and mute in mild sweet wise


s: Pleading for pity of piteous lips and eyes,


s: He strayed with faint bare lily-lovely feet


s: Nor might man see, not having word hereof,


s: That this of all gods was the great god Love.


s: And seeing him lovely and like a little child


s: That wellnigh wept for wonder that it smiled


s: And was so feeble and fearful, with soft speech


s: The youth bespake him softly; but there fell


s: From the sweet lips no sweet word audible


s: No sound to make the dim cold silence glad,


s: No breath to thaw the hard harsh air with heat;


s: Only the saddest smile of all things sweet,


s: Only the sweetest smile of all things sad.


s: Till April dying made free the world for May;


s: And on his guide suddenly Love's face turned,


s: Hard light and heat of laughter; and like flame


s: That opens in a mountain's ravening mouth


s: To blear and sear the sunlight from the south,


s: His mute mouth opened, and his first word came:


s: As of one shadowing heaven and lightening hell;


s: And statelier stood he than a tower that stands


s: And darkens with its darkness far-off sands


s: And with a voice that stilled the winds he said:


s: 'I am he that was thy lord before thy birth,


s: I am he that is thy lord till thou turn earth:


s: I make the night more dark, and all the morrow


s: Dark as the night whose darkness was my breath:


s: And he that heard spake not, and looked right on


s: Through many a night toward many a wearier day


s: Through many a day toward many a wearier night


s: His soul sustained his sorrows in her sight.


s: And earth was bitter, and heaven, and even the sea


s: And with too long strong stress of grief to be


s: And one bright eve ere summer in autumn sank


s: He felt the wind fitfully shift and heave


s: And all the wan wide sea shuddered; and earth


s: Shook underfoot as toward some timeless birth,


s: Heaven, darkling, trembled like a stricken thrall.


s: And far out of the quivering east, and far


s: From past the moonrise and its guiding star,


s: That was not of the lightning; and a sound


s: That was not of the thunder; and a flight


s: That was not of them; and with songs and cries


s: That sang and shrieked their soul out at the skies


s: A shapeless earthly storm of shapes began


s: From all ways round to move in on the man,


s: Clamorous against him silent; and their feet


s: And their shrill songs were as wild birds' are sweet.


s: And as when all the world of earth was wronged


s: And all the host of all men driven afoam


s: Round some fierce amphitheatre overthronged


s: With fair clear faces full of bloodier lust


s: Than swells and stings the tiger when his mood


s: And drunk with trampling of the murderous must


s: That soaks and stains the tortuous close-coiled wood


s: Made monstrous with its myriad-mustering brood,


s: Face by fair face panted and gleamed and pressed,


s: Heaved hot with ravenous rapture, as they quaffed


s: The red ripe full fume of the deep live draught,


s: The sharp quick reek of keen fresh bloodshed, blown


s: Through the dense deep drift up to the emperor's throne


s: With clamour of all-applausive throats and hands,


s: With shrill blithe mockeries of the lithe-limbed mime:


s: So from somewhence far forth of the unbeholden,


s: Dreadfully driven from over and after and under,


s: Fierce, blown through fifes of brazen blast and golden,


s: With sound of chiming waves that drown the thunder


s: Began the bellowing of the bull-voiced mimes,


s: Terrible; firs bowed down as briars or palms


s: Even at the breathless blast as of a breeze


s: Fulfilled with clamour and clangour and storms of psalms;


s: Red hands rent up the roots of old-world trees,


s: Thick flames of torches tossed as tumbling seas


s: That, ravening, revelled in the riotous hair


s: So came all those in on him; and his heart,


s: Danced, and his flesh took fire of theirs, and grief


s: Blown dead far down the wind's way; and he set


s: His pale mouth to the brightest mouth it met


s: That laughed for love against his lips, and bade


s: Follow; and in following all his blood grew glad


s: Took him to bathe him deep round breast and brow


s: Not as it takes a dead leaf drained and thinned,


s: But as the brightest bay-flower blown on bough,


s: Set springing toward it singing: and they rode


s: By many a vine-leafed, many a rose-hung road,


s: Set all its stars upon them as for spies


s: On many a moon-bewildering mountain-height


s: Of his dread lady's hot sweet hungering eyes.


s: For the moon wandered witless of her way,


s: Spell-stricken by strong magic in such wise


s: And in his ears the music that makes mad


s: Beat always; and what way the music bade,


s: But heaven was as red iron, slumberless,


s: And earth lay sere and darkling as distraught,


s: Then many a midnight, many a morn and even,


s: His mother, passing forth of her fair heaven,


s: With goodlier gifts than all save gods can give


s: From earth or from the heaven where sea-things live,


s: With shine of sea-flowers through the bay-leaf braid


s: Woven for a crown her foam-white hands had made


s: To crown him with land's laurel and sea-dew,


s: Sought the sea-bird that was her boy: but he


s: Riding the red ways of the revel through


s: Midmost of pale-mouthed passion's crownless crew.


s: Till on some winter's dawn of some dim year


s: He let the vine-bit on the panther's lip


s: And set his eyes to seaward, nor gave ear


s: If sound from landward hailed him, dire or dear;


s: And passing forth of all those fair fierce ranks


s: Against a sea-rock lying, aslant the steep,


s: Fell after many sleepless dreams on sleep.


s: And in his sleep the dun green light was shed


s: That through the veil of sea falls fathom-deep,


s: Blurred like a lamp's that when the night drops dead


s: Dies; and his eyes gat grace of sleep to see


s: The deep divine dark dayshine of the sea,


s: Dense water-walls and clear dusk water-ways,


s: Broad-based, or branching as a sea-flower sprays


s: The glory of all her glories that he knew.


s: And in sharp rapture of recovering tears


s: He woke on fire with yearnings of old years,


s: Pure as one purged of pain that passion bore,


s: Looked laughing toward him from her midsea throne,


s: Thence in his heart the great same joy began,


s: And turned again from all hearts else on quest,


s: He communed with his own heart, and had rest.


s: His days and dreams together, till the joy


s: Till the earth's great comfort and the sweet sea's breath


s: Breathed and blew life in where was heartless death,


s: Death spirit-stricken of soul-sick days, where strife


s: Of thought and flesh made mock of death and life.


s: And grace returned upon him of his birth


s: Where heaven was mixed with heavenlike sea and earth;


s: And song shot forth strong wings that took the sun


s: From inward, fledged with might of sorrow and mirth


s: And father's fire made mortal in his son.


s: Nor was not spirit of strength in blast and breeze


s: To exalt again the sun's child and the sea's;


s: For as wild mares in Thessaly grow great


s: With child of ravishing winds, that violate


s: Their leaping length of limb with manes like fire


s: With fires more violent than the lightning levin's


s: And breath drained out and desperate of desire,


s: Even so the spirit in him, when winds grew strong,


s: Nor less than when his veins first leapt for joy


s: The passionate pride of deep sea-pulses dealt


s: As from the love and largess of old time,


s: The tidal throb of all the tides keep rhyme


s: And charm him from his own soul's separate sense


s: That made strength sweet in him and sweetness strong,


s: Till one clear day when brighter sea-wind blew


s: And louder sea-shine lightened, for the waves


s: Were full of godhead and the light that saves,


s: His father's, and their spirit had pierced him through,


s: He felt strange breath and light all round him shed


s: That bowed him down with rapture; and he knew


s: His father's hand, hallowing his humbled head,


s: And the old great voice of the old good time, that said:


s: "Child of my sunlight and the sea, from birth


s: Sleepless of soul as wind or wave or fire,


s: A manchild with an ungrown God's desire;


s: Because thou hast loved nought mortal more than me,


s: Because thou hast set thine heart to sing, and sold


s: Life and life's love for song, God's living gold;


s: Because thou hast given thy flower and fire of youth


s: To feed men's hearts with visions, truer than truth;


s: Because thou hast kept in those world-wandering eyes


s: The light that makes me music of the skies;


s: Because thou hast heard with world-unwearied ears


s: The music that puts light into the spheres;


s: Have therefore in thine heart and in thy mouth


s: The sound of song that mingles north and south,


s: The song of all the winds that sing of me,


s: And in thy soul the sense of all the sea."


s: Between the moondawn and the sundown here


s: The twilight hangs half starless; half the sea


s: Still quivers as for love or pain or fear


s: Or pleasure mightier than these all may be


s: Wherein a God's with mortal blood should meet


s: And fill its pulse too full to bear the strain


s: With fear or love or pleasure's twin-born, pain.


s: Fiercely the gaunt woods to the grim soil cling


s: Wan wild sparse flowers of windy and wintry spring


s: Between the tortive serpent-shapen roots


s: Wherethrough their dim growth hardly strikes and shoots


s: Hardly, to speak for summer one sweet word


s: But higher the steep green sterile fields, thick-set


s: With flowerless hawthorn even to the upward verge


s: Whence the woods gathering watch new cliffs emerge


s: Higher than their highest of crowns that sea-winds fret,


s: Hold fast, for all that night or wind can say,


s: Too dim for green and luminous for grey.


s: Between the climbing inland cliffs above


s: And these beneath that breast and break the bay,


s: A barren peace too soft for hate or love


s: Broods on an hour too dim for night or day.


s: O wind, O wingless wind that walk'st the sea,


s: Weak wind, wing-broken, wearier wind than we,


s: Who are yet not spirit-broken, maimed like thee,


s: Who wail not in our inward night as thou


s: What word has the old sea given thee for mine ear


s: For some word would she send me, knowing not how.


s: Or all my winged white kinsfolk of the sea


s: Between fresh wave and wave was ever heard,


s: Cleaves the clear dark enwinding tree with tree


s: Too close for stars to separate and to see


s: What voice of what strong God hath stormed and stirred


s: The fortressed rock of silence, rent apart


s: Even to the core Night's all-maternal heart?


s: What voice of God grown heavenlier in a bird,


s: Than lightning--yea, thou knowest, O mother Night,


s: Keen as that cry from thy strange children sent


s: Wherewith the Athenian judgment-shrine was rent,


s: For wrath that all their wrath was vainly spent,


s: Yea, what new cry is this, what note more bright


s: Than their song's wing of words was dark of flight,


s: Thine and not thine or theirs, O Night, what word


s: More keen than lightning and more sweet than light?


s: As all men's hearts grew godlike in one bird


s: And all those hearts cried on thee, crying with might,


s: In the eyes and lips of dawn that draw the sun


s: To hear what first child's word with glimmering breath


s: Their weak wan weanling child the twilight saith;


s: God, if thou be God,--bird, if bird thou be,--


s: For but one word, what wind soever blow,


s: In fruitless years of youth dead long ago


s: And deep beneath their own dead leaves and snow


s: Buried, I heard with bitter heart and sere


s: The same sea's word unchangeable, nor knew


s: But that mine own life-days were changeless too


s: And sharp and salt with unshed tear on tear


s: And cold and fierce and barren; and my soul,


s: Sickening, swam weakly with bated breath


s: And felt the wind buffet her face with brine


s: Hard, and harsh thought on thought in long bleak roll


s: Blown by keen gusts of memory sad as thine


s: Heap the weight up of pain, and break, and leave


s: In the sick heavy spirit, unmanned with strife


s: Of waves that beat at the tired lips of life.


s: Nay, sad may be man's memory, sad may be


s: The dream he weaves him as for shadow of thee,


s: But scarce one breathing-space, one heartbeat long,


s: Wilt thou take shadow of sadness on thy song.


s: Not thou, being more than man or man's desire,


s: With throat of gold and spirit of the sun;


s: The sun whom all our souls and songs call sire,


s: Whose godhead gave thee, chosen of all our quire,


s: Thee only of all that serve, of all that sing


s: Borne up some space on time's world-wandering wing,


s: This gift, this doom, to bear till time's wing tire--


s: My heart has been as thy heart, and my life


s: As thy life is, a sleepless hidden thing,


s: Full of the thirst and hunger of winter and spring,


s: That seeks its food not in such love or strife


s: As fill men's hearts with passionate hours and rest.


s: From no loved lips and on no loving breast


s: Have I sought ever for such gifts as bring


s: Comfort, to stay the secret soul with sleep.


s: The joys, the loves, the labours, whence men reap


s: I have made not mine; the best of all my days


s: Have been as those fair fruitless summer strays,


s: Those water-waifs that but the sea-wind steers,


s: Flakes of glad foam or flowers on footless ways


s: That take the wind in season and the sun,


s: And when the wind wills is their season done.


s: For all my days as all thy days from birth


s: My heart as thy heart was in me as thee,


s: Fire; and not all the fountains of the sea


s: Have waves enough to quench it, nor on earth


s: While day sows night and night sows day for seed.


s: We were not marked for sorrow, thou nor I,


s: For joy nor sorrow, sister, were we made,


s: To take delight and grief to live and die,


s: Assuaged by pleasures or by pains affrayed


s: That melt men's hearts and alter; we retain


s: A memory mastering pleasure and all pain,


s: A spirit within the sense of ear and eye,


s: A soul behind the soul, that seeks and sings


s: And makes our life move only with its wings


s: And feed but from its lips, that in return


s: Feed of our hearts wherein the old fires that burn


s: Nor glory enough to exalt us past our doom.


s: _Ah, ah, the doom_ (thou knowest whence rang that wail)


s: (From whose wild lips, thou knowest, that wail was thrown)


s: _For round about her have the great gods cast


s: A wing-borne body, and clothed her close and fast


s: With a sweet life that hath no part in moan.


s: But me, for me_ (how hadst thou heart to hear?)


s: _Remains a sundering with the two-edged spear._


s: _Ah, for her doom!_ so cried in presage then


s: The bodeful bondslave of the king of men,


s: Too close the entangling dragnet woven of crime,


s: The curse of new time for an elder time,


s: Enmeshed intolerably in the intolerant net,


s: Who thought with craft to mock the God most high,


s: But thou,--the gods have given thee and forgiven thee


s: That strange-eyed spirit-wounded strange-tongued slave


s: There questing houndlike where the roofs red-wet


s: Life everlasting has their strange grace given thee,


s: Even hers whom thou wast wont to sing and serve


s: With eyes, but not with song, too swift to swerve;


s: Yet might not even thine eyes estranged estrange her,


s: Who seeing thee too, but inly, burn and bleed


s: Like that pale princess-priest of Priam's seed,


s: For stranger service gave thee guerdon stranger;


s: That thou, being more than all we born, being higher


s: Than all heads crowned of him that only gives


s: The bay that bids man moved of God's desire


s: Set lip to trumpet or deflowered green reed--


s: If this were given thee for a grace indeed,


s: That thou, being first of all these, thou alone


s: Shouldst have the grace to die not, but to live


s: And lose nor change one pulse of song, one tone


s: Of all that were thy lady's and thine own,


s: Thy lady's whom thou criedst on to forgive,


s: Thou, priest and sacrifice on the altar-stone


s: Where none may worship not of all that live,


s: Love's priestess, errant on dark ways diverse;


s: If this were grace indeed for Love to give,


s: If this indeed were blessing and no curse.


s: Love's priestess, mad with pain and joy of song,


s: Song's priestess, mad with joy and pain of love,


s: Name above all names that are lights above,


s: We have loved, praised, pitied, crowned and done thee wrong,


s: O thou past praise and pity; thou the sole


s: Utterly deathless, perfect only and whole


s: The implacable sweet shadow of perfect sleep


s: That gives not back what life gives death to keep;


s: Yea, all that lived and loved and sang and sinned


s: Are all borne down death's cold sweet soundless wind


s: That blows all night and knows not whom its breath,


s: But one that wind hath touched and changed not,--one


s: Whose body and soul are parcel of the sun;


s: One that earth's fire could burn not, nor the sea


s: Quench; nor might human doom take hold on thee;


s: All praise, all pity, all dreams have done thee wrong,


s: All love, with eyes love-blinded from above;


s: Love's priestess, mad with pain and joy of song.


s: Or the earth's warm woodlands girdling with green girth


s: Thy secret sleepless burning life on earth,


s: Or even the sea that once, being woman crowned


s: And girt with fire and glory of anguish round,


s: Thou wert so fain to seek to, fain to crave


s: And give thee comfort of thy great green grave?


s: Because I have known thee always who thou art,


s: Thou knowest, have known thee to thy heart's own heart,


s: Nor ever have given light ear to storied song


s: That did thy sweet name sweet unwitting wrong,


s: Nor ever have called thee nor would call for shame,


s: Thou knowest, but inly by thine only name,


s: Sappho--because I have known thee and loved, hast thou


s: As brother and sister were we, child and bird,


s: Flamed on me, and I knew not whence I knew


s: This was the song that struck my whole soul through,


s: Pierced my keen spirit of sense with edge more keen,


s: Even when I knew not,--even ere sooth was seen,--


s: When thou wast but the tawny sweet winged thing


s: And yet even so thine ear should hear me--yea,


s: Hear me this nightfall by this northland bay,


s: Even for their sake whose loud good word I had,


s: Singing of thee in the all-beloved clime


s: Once, where the windy wine of spring makes mad


s: Yet was the song acclaimed of these aloud


s: Whose praise had made mute humbleness misproud,


s: The song with answering song applauded thus,


s: So but for love's love haply was it--nay,


s: How else?--that even their song took my song's part,


s: For love of love and sweetness of sweet heart,


s: Or god-given glorious madness of mid May


s: And heat of heart and hunger and thirst to sing,


s: Full of the new wine of the wind of spring.


s: To hold myself in spirit of thy sweet kin,


s: If this my great love do thy grace no wrong,


s: Thy grace that gave me grace to dwell therein;


s: If thy gods thus be my gods, and their will


s: Made my song part of thy song--even such part


s: What have our gods then given us? Ah, to thee,


s: Sister, much more, much happier than to me,


s: Much happier things they have given, and more of grace


s: For lighter are we, all our love and pain


s: Lighter than thine, who knowest of time or place


s: Can heal or hurt or lull or change again


s: The singing soul that makes his soul sublime


s: Who hears the far fall of its fire-fledged rhyme


s: Fill darkness as with bright and burning rain


s: Till all the live gloom inly glows, and light


s: Seems with the sound to cleave the core of night.


s: The singing soul that moves thee, and that moved


s: When thou wast woman, and their songs divine


s: Who mixed for Grecian mouths heaven's lyric wine


s: Before one sovereign Lesbian song of thine.


s: That soul, though love and life had fain held fast,


s: Wind-winged with fiery music, rose and past


s: Through the indrawn hollow of earth and heaven and hell,


s: The wide sea's immemorial song,--the sea


s: That sings and breathes in strange men's ears of thee


s: How in her barren bride-bed, void and vast,


s: Even thy soul sang itself to sleep at last.


s: To sleep? Ah, then, what song is this, that here


s: One ear fulfilled and mad with music, one


s: Heart kindling as the heart of heaven, to hear


s: A song more fiery than the awakening sun


s: To the air and clouds that build the dead night's pyre?


s: Deathless, God's daughter subtle-souled_--lo, now,


s: Now too the song above all songs, in flight


s: And sweet as sound the moving wings of night!


s: _Thou of the divers-coloured seat_--behold,


s: _O deathless, O God's daughter subtle-souled!_


s: That same cry through this boskage overhead


s: The last that panted through her lips and died


s: Not down this grey north sea's half sapped cliff-side


s: That crumbles toward the coastline, year by year


s: The last loud lyric fiery cry she cried,


s: Heard once on heights Leucadian,--heard not here.


s: Not here; for this that fires our northland night,


s: Love fearful, even the heart of love afraid,


s: With the great anguish of its great delight.


s: No swan-song, no far-fluttering half-drawn breath,


s: No word that love of love's sweet nature saith,


s: No dirge that lulls the narrowing lids of death,


s: No healing hymn of peace-prevented strife,--


s: _I loved thee_,--hark, one tenderer note than all--


s: _Atthis, of old time, once_--one low long fall,


s: Sighing--one long low lovely loveless call,


s: Dying--one pause in song so flamelike fast--


s: _Atthis, long since in old time overpast_--


s: One,--then the old rage of rapture's fieriest rain


s: Storms all the music-maddened night again.


s: _Child of God, close craftswoman, I beseech thee,


s: Bid not ache nor agony break nor master,


s: O thou her mistress, might her cry not reach thee?


s: Our Lady of all men's loves, could Love go past her,


s: She hears not as she heard not; hears not me,


s: O treble-natured mystery,--how should she


s: Hear, or give ear?--who heard and heard not thee;


s: Heard, and went past, and heard not; but all time


s: Hears all that all the ravin of his years


s: Hath cast not wholly out of all men's ears


s: And dulled to death with deep dense funeral chime


s: And now of all songs uttering all her praise,


s: All hers who had thy praise and did thee wrong,


s: All ages call thee conqueror, and thy cry


s: The mightiest as the least beneath the sky


s: Whose heart was ever set to song, or stirred


s: With wind of mounting music blown more high


s: Hath heard or hears,--even Æschylus as I.


s: But when thy name was woman, and thy word


s: This thy bird's note was heard on earth of none,


s: In all the world then surely was but one


s: Song; as in heaven at highest one sceptred sun


s: Regent, on earth here surely without fail


s: Silent; the hill was tongueless as the vale


s: Even when the last fair waif of cloud that felt


s: Its heart beneath the colouring moonrays melt,


s: At high midnoon of midnight half withdrawn,


s: Bared all the sudden deep divine moondawn.


s: That latter timeless morning of the moon


s: Rose past its hour of moonrise; clouds gave way


s: But no song answering made it more than day;


s: Shot fire into the cloud-constraining light.


s: In one strange manlike maiden's godlike note,


s: Till the sea's portal was as funeral gate


s: For that sole singer in all time's ageless date


s: Singled and signed for so triumphal fate,


s: All nightingales but one in all the world


s: All her sweet life were silent; only then,


s: When her life's wing of womanhood was furled,


s: Their cry, this cry of thine was heard again,


s: Through sleepless clear spring nights filled full of thee,


s: Rekindled here, thy ruling song has thrilled


s: And breathless hearts with one bright sound fulfilled.


s: Swimming, and birds about my happier head


s: Skimming, one smooth soft way by water and air,


s: To these my bright born brethren and to me


s: Hath not the clear wind borne or seemed to bear


s: A song wherein all earth and heaven and sea


s: To enforce us, O our sister of the shore,


s: Look once in heart back landward and adore?


s: For songless were we sea-mews, yet had we


s: More joy than all things joyful of thee--more,


s: Haply, than all things happiest; nay, save thee,


s: Too high for heart of sea-borne bird or boy,


s: What living things were happiest if not we?


s: But knowing not love nor change nor wrath nor wrong,


s: Song, and the secrets of it, and their might,


s: What blessings curse it and what curses bless,


s: I know them since my spirit had first in sight,


s: Clear as thy song's words or the live sun's light,


s: The small dark body's Lesbian loveliness


s: Were as a god's to see, a god's to hear,


s: Through all his hours of daily and nightly chime,


s: The sundering of the two-edged spear of time:


s: The spear that pierces even the sevenfold shields


s: Of mightiest Memory, mother of all songs made,


s: And wastes all songs as roseleaves kissed and frayed


s: As here the harvest of the foam-flowered fields;


s: But thine the spear may waste not that he wields


s: Since first the God whose soul is man's live breath,


s: The sun whose face hath our sun's face for shade,


s: Put all the light of life and love and death


s: Too strong for life, but not for love too strong,


s: Where pain makes peace with pleasure in thy song,


s: And in thine heart, where love and song make strife,


s: Sea, and bright wind, and heaven of ardent air,


s: More dear than all things earth-born; O to me


s: Mother more dear than love's own longing, sea,


s: Be with my spirit of song as wings to bear,


s: As fire to feel and breathe and brighten; be


s: A light of love, if love may be, more strong


s: For song I have loved with second love, but thee,


s: Thee first, thee, mother; ere my songs had breath,


s: That love of loves, whose bondage makes man free,


s: And seeing no slave may love thee, no, not one


s: And more for thy sake loves her, and for hers


s: Thee; or that hates not, on whate'er thy shore


s: Or what thy wave soever, all things done


s: In his despite and thine, to cross and curse


s: Your light and song that as with lamp and verse


s: Guide safe the strength of our sphered universe,


s: Thy breath it was, thou knowest, and none but thine,


s: That taught me love of one thing more divine.


s: And all my spirit of singing sick and sad and sere,


s: In all thy flower-sweet flock of islands dear and near.


s: Had made mine eyes already like a god's to see:


s: Than thy sweet love long since had shown for love to me.


s: To take mine eyes with rapture and my sense with rest.


s: That this was left for me,                              [_Ant._2.


s: To feel as fire fulfilling all my blood and breath,


s: And on its burning visions burns itself to death.


s: As some beleaguered city's war-breached wall


s: With deaths enmeshed all round it in deep net,


s: Thick sown with rocks deadlier than steel, and fierce


s: With loud cross-countering currents, where the ship


s: Flags, flickering like a wind-bewildered leaf,


s: The densest weft of waves that prow may pierce


s: Coils round the sharpest warp of shoals that dip


s: Suddenly, scarce well under for one brief


s: Keen breathing-space between the streams adverse,


s: Scarce showing the fanged edge of one hungering lip


s: Or one tooth lipless of the ravening reef;


s: And midmost of the murderous water's web


s: Laughs, reckless of rough tide and raging ebb,


s: The loveliest thing that shines against the sun.


s: Than thy golden own field-flowers, or tree-flowers


s: On the spikes of thine anthers like horns,


s: With snow-coloured spray for thy petals,


s: Of all lowlands on earth and all highlands,


s: And broke, that his waves might be round thee,


s: As a nest when his wings would remeasure


s: More flowerbright flowers the hawthorn, or more sweet


s: Swells the wild gold of the earth for wandering feet;


s: Crowds the close whin-bloom closer, set like thee


s: With thorns about for fangs of sea-rock shown


s: Through blithe lips of the bitter brine to lee;


s: Nor blithelier landward comes the sea-wind blown,


s: Nor blithelier leaps the land-wind back to sea:


s: Nor louder springs the living song of birds


s: And in the narrowest of thine hollowest hold


s: For joy thine aspens quiver as though for cold,


s: And many a self-lit flower-illumined tree


s: Outlaughs with snowbright or with rosebright glee


s: The laughter of the fields whose laugh is gold.


s: Even thine own beauty with its own delight


s: Fulfils thine heart in thee an hundredfold


s: Beyond the larger hearts of islands bright


s: Self-satiate, centred in its own deep fire;


s: Of shores not self-enchanted and entranced


s: By heavenly severance from all shadow of mirth


s: Fair as could be no beauty save thine own,


s: And wondrous as no world-beholden wonder:


s: Throned, with the world's most perilous sea for throne,


s: And praised from all its choral throats of thunder.


s: Earth's friend, whose eyes look past her,


s: Who knows how then his godlike banished gaze


s: Turned haply from its goal of natural days


s: And homeward hunger for the clear French clime,


s: Toward English earth, whereunder now the Accursed


s: Rots, in the hate of all men's hearts inhearsed,


s: For that sepulchral gift of stone and lime


s: By royal grace laid on it, less of weight


s: Fate, misbegotten child of his own crime,


s: Less heavy than the load of cursing piled


s: On one man's head, whose reeking soul made rotten


s: The loathed live corpse on earth once misbegotten?


s: But when our Master's homeless feet were here


s: France yet was foul with joy more foul than fear,


s: And slavery chosen, more vile by choice of chance


s: Alas fair mother of men, alas my France,


s: What ailed thee so to fall, that wert so dear


s: For all men's sake to all men, in such trance,


s: Plague-stricken? Had the very Gods, that saw


s: Had these waxed envious of our love and awe,


s: Or was it less their envy than thy pride


s: That bared thy breast for the obscene vulture-claw,


s: High priestess, by whose mouth Love prophesied


s: That fate should yet mean freedom? Howsoever,


s: That hour, the helper of men's hearts, we praise,


s: Which blots out of man's book of after days


s: The name above all names abhorred for ever.


s: And His name shall we praise not, whom these flowers,


s: These rocks and ravening waters bound for girth


s: Round this wild starry spanlong plot of earth,


s: Beheld, the mightier for those heavier hours


s: Nor marred one crowning blossom of his crown?


s: Even from the dark deep sea-gate that makes way


s: Through channelled darkness for the darkling day


s: Hardly to let men's faltering footfall win


s: Where breaks a world aflower against the sun,


s: A small sweet world of wave-encompassed wonder


s: Kept from the wearier landward world asunder


s: With violence of wild waters, and with thunder


s: To where the keen sea-current grinds and frets


s: The black bright sheer twin flameless Altarlets


s: That lack no live blood-sacrifice they crave


s: Of shipwreck and the shrine-subservient wave,


s: Having for priest the storm-wind, and for choir


s: Lightnings and clouds whose prayer and praise are fire,


s: All the isle acclaimed him coming; she, the least


s: Of all things loveliest that the sea's love hides


s: From strange men's insult, walled about with tides


s: That bid strange guests back from her flower-strewn feast,


s: Set all her fields aflower, her flowers aflame,


s: Nor surely flashed not something of delight


s: Through that steep strait of rock whose twin-cliffed height


s: Links crag with crag reiterate, land with land,


s: By one sheer thread of narrowing precipice


s: And wilder isle with island, blind for bliss


s: Of sea that lightens and of wind that thunders;


s: Nor pealed not surely back from deep to steep


s: Praise, and response applausive; nor the sea,


s: Knew not the song her sister, even as she


s: Thundering, or like her confluent spring-tides brightening,


s: The song that moved about him silent, now


s: Both soundless wings refolded and refurled


s: Then quivering as for flight that wakes the world.


s: That brighten as ever they widen till downward the level is won


s: As a beaker inverse at a feast on Olympus, exhausted of wine,


s: So glimmers the gloom into glory, the glory recoils into gloom,


s: Even like that hollow-bosomed rose, inverse


s: And infinite, the heaven of thy vast verse,


s: Upwondering, search the music-moulded skies


s: Sphere by sweet sphere, concordant as it blends


s: Light of bright sound, sound of clear light, in one,


s: As all the stars found utterance through the sun.


s: And all that heaven is like a rose in bloom,


s: Flower-coloured, where its own sun's fires illume


s: But lightening still and darkling downward, lo


s: Between the full moon and the sunset star,


s: The war-song of the sounding skies aglow,


s: That have the herald thunder for their prophet:


s: From north to south the lyric lights that leap,


s: The tragic sundawns reddening east and west


s: As with bright blood from one Promethean breast,


s: The peace of noon that strikes the sea to sleep,


s: The wail over the world of all that weep,


s: The peace of night when death brings life on rest.


s: Goddess who gatherest all the herded waves


s: Into thy great sweet pastureless green fold,


s: I pray thee by thy power that slays and saves,


s: Take thou my song of this thy flower to keep


s: And from thine high place of thy garden-steep,


s: Where one sheer terrace oversees thy deep


s: Down even to thy dear depths of night and light,


s: Breathe back the benediction of thy sea.


s: _Between two seas the sea-bird's wing makes halt,


s: Wind-weary; while with lifting head he waits


s: For breath to reinspire him from the gates


s: That open still toward sunrise on the vault


s: High-domed of morning, and in flight's default


s: With spreading sense of spirit anticipates


s: What new sea now may lure beyond the straits


s: And fill them full as sails to seaward spread,


s: Fulfilled with fair speed's promise. Pass, my song,


s: Forth to the haven of thy desire and dread,


s: The presence of our lord, long loved and long


s: A flower of rosier flowerage than thine own,


s: A glory of goodlier godhead; even this day,


s: That floods the mist of February with May,


s: And strikes death dead with sunlight, and the breath


s: Whereby the deadly doers are done to death,


s: This day that casts the days of darkness down


s: We call thee from the gulf of deeds and days,


s: Deathless and dead, to hear us whom we praise.


s: Compact of confluent aureoles, each more fair


s: Than man, save only at highest of man, may wear,


s: So didst thou rise, when this our grey-grown age


s: Led by cross lights of lightnings, and the flame


s: That burned in darkness round one darkling name;


s: So didst thou rise, nor knewest thy glory, O thou


s: The glory given thee for a grace to give,


s: And take the praise of all men's hearts that live.


s: First in the dewy ray                              [_Epode_ 1.


s: The fresh crowned lilies of discrowned kings' prime


s: And rays refract from the oldworld heaven of time;


s: Pale with proud light of stars decreased


s: In westward wane reluctant from the conquering east.


s: Thrust up the new growths of their green-leaved gloom,


s: Red buds of ballad blossom, where the dew


s: Blushed as with bloodlike passion, and its hue


s: Was as the life and love of hearts on flame,


s: And fire from forth of each live chalice came:


s: Bright foliage with dark frondage overlaid,


s: And light the lovelier for its lordlier shade;


s: And morn and even made loud in woodland lone


s: And through the tournay's clash and clarion's cheer


s: Laugh to laugh echoing, tear washed off by tear.


s: Then eastward far past northland lea and lawn


s: Bright sound of battle along the Grecian waves,


s: Loud light of thunder above the Median graves,


s: With dewfall redder than the dews of day,


s: And earth-born lightnings out of bloodbright spray;


s: Then through the flushed grey gloom on shadowy sheaves


s: And choirs of birds transfiguring as they throng


s: All the world's twilight and the soul's to song.


s: Voices more dimly deep                               [_Ep._ 2.


s: And tenderer than the rose-mouthed morning's lips;


s: The sea's breath in the wind's wing and the ship's,


s: And rend that other in sunder as with fangs by night.


s: And had for scroll the night, for scribe the day!


s: For scribe the prophet of the morning, far


s: The dim twin wastes of sea and glimmering land.


s: Sound like a stream at nightfall from the steep


s: That all time's depths might answer, deep to deep,


s: The crying of one for love that strayed and sinned


s: Whose brain took madness of the mountain wind.


s: Mix their strong hearts with theirs that soar and sing?


s: Before the storm-blast blown of death's dark horn


s: The marriage moonlight withers, that the morn


s: For two made one may find three made by death


s: Faith lightens on the lips that bloomed for hire


s: Pure as the lightning of love's first-born fire:


s: Wide-eyed and patient ever, till the curse


s: Keen expiation whets with edge more dread


s: A father's wrong to smite a father's head.


s: Borgia, supreme from birth                           [_Ep._ 3.


s: Since earth bore ever women that were fair;


s: Who holds men's hearts yet helpless with her hair;


s: Bows down her amorous aureole half suffused with shade.


s: Ere her life shrivelled from a fierier doom


s: Than theirs her priests bade pass from earth in fire


s: To slake the thirst of God their Lord's desire:


s: As keen the blast of love-enkindled fate


s: That burst the Paduan tyrant's guarded gate:


s: For one whose feet made music as they fell


s: On ways by loveless love made hot from hell:


s: But higher than these and all the song thereof


s: The heart by fraud and hate once crucified,


s: That, dying, gave thanks, and in thanksgiving died.


s: With roar of ravage trampling corn and vine


s: And storm of wrathful wassail dashed with song,


s: And under these the watch of wreakless wrong,


s: These, the light of the stricken eyes of love,


s: And face athirst with young wan yearning mouth


s: Turned after toward the unseen all-golden south,


s: Hopeless to see the birds back ere life wane,


s: And still the might and music mastering fate


s: Of life more strong than death and love than hate.


s: In spectral strength biform                          [_Ep._ 4.


s: Transfigured by transmission of one hand


s: Than once it lightened over each man's land;


s: There Freedom's winged and wide-mouthed hound,


s: And here our high Dictator, in his son discrowned.


s: Fed at his hands and fostered round his knees?


s: Fear takes the spirit in thraldom at his nod,


s: As his own soul that from her throne above


s: Sheds on all souls of men her showers of love,


s: And feeds with pity from a faultless hand


s: All by their own fault stricken, all cast out


s: Or with their own hands wounded, or by fate


s: Brought into bondage of men's fear or hate.


s: In violence of strange visions north and south


s: Eyes fixed or fevered, pale or bloodred mouth,


s: Kept watch about his dawn-enkindled dreams;


s: But ere high noon a light of nearer beams


s: Made his young heaven of manhood more benign,


s: And love made soft his lips with spiritual wine,


s: And sweet with honey of tenderer words than tears


s: To feed men's hopes and fortify men's fears,


s: And strong to silence with benignant breath


s: And swift with speech like fire in fiery lands


s: To melt the steel's edge in the headsman's hands.


s: Higher than they rose of old,                        [_Ep._ 5.


s: The live great likeness of Our Lady's towers;


s: One fair ghost moving, crowned with fateful flowers,


s: And eyes of love's heart broken and unbroken trust.


s: The face of Duty lit with Love's own eyes;


s: Till the awful hands that culled in rosier hours


s: From fairy-footed fields of wild old flowers


s: And sorcerous woods of Rhineland, green and hoary,


s: Young children's chaplets of enchanted story,


s: And, as man's helper made his foeman God,


s: Of pity and mercy wrought themselves a rod,


s: And threw for all the doors of refuge wide,


s: Took to them lightning in the thunder-tide.


s: For storm on earth above had risen from under,


s: From darkest deeps of heaven distract with thunder;


s: A cloud of cursing, past all shape of thought,


s: More foul than foulest dreams, and overfraught


s: With all obscene things and obscure of birth


s: That ever made infection of man's earth;


s: And in its womb such offspring so defiled


s: As earth bare never for her loathliest child,


s: Rose, brooded, reddened, broke, and with its breath


s: Yea, far as heaven's red labouring eye could glance,


s: France was not, save in men cast forth of France.


s: Then,--while the plague-sore grew                    [_Ep._ 6.


s: And rankled in the festering flesh of time,--


s: In fierce mutations of the unslumbering clime,


s: There, sleepless too, o'er shuddering wrong


s: One hand appointed shook the reddening scourge of song.


s: And through the lightnings of the apparent word


s: And light more sweet than song from night's own bird


s: Mixed each their hearts with other, till the gloom


s: Was glorious as with all the stars in bloom,


s: Sonorous as with all the spheres in chime


s: Heard far through flowering heaven: the sea, sublime


s: Sad only or glad with its own glory, and crowned


s: With its own light, and thrilled with its own sound,


s: Learnt now their song, more sweet than heaven's may be,


s: The song that takes of old love's land farewell,


s: With pulse of plangent water like a knell.


s: And louder ever and louder and yet more loud


s: Through darkening deeps beneath the covering cloud,


s: Till all the wild beasts of the darkness hear;


s: Till the Czar quake, till Austria cower for fear,


s: Till the king breathe not, till the priest wax pale,


s: Till spies and slayers on seats of judgment quail,


s: Till Cæsar driven to lair and hounded Pope


s: Reel breathless and drop heartless out of hope,


s: And one the uncleanest kinless beast of all


s: To turn all hate and horror cold with scorn.


s: Yea, even at night's full noon                       [_Ep._ 7.


s: Spake, witnessing that with us one must be,


s: The strength whose scourge sounds on the smitten sea;


s: Which bids the wind give back to night the things of night.


s: Veiled and revealed of all things and of nought,


s: Hooded and helmed with mystery, girt and shod


s: With light and darkness, unapparent God.


s: Him the high prophet o'er his wild work bent


s: Transformed and transient ever; masked and crowned,


s: From all bonds loosened and with all bonds bound,


s: Diverse and one with all things; love and hate,


s: Of heaven immeasurable, and years that flee


s: As clouds and winds and rays across the sea.


s: But higher than stars and deeper than the waves


s: Keeps ageless watch over perpetual graves.


s: From dawn to morning of the soul in flower,


s: Through toils and dreams and visions, to that hour


s: When all the deeps were opened, and one doom


s: Took two sweet lives to embrace them and entomb,


s: And the deep light reverberate sound as deep;


s: Song soft as flowers or grass more soft than sleep,


s: Song bright as heaven above the mounting bird,


s: Falling, fulfilled of life and death and light,


s: And all the stars and all the shadow of night.


s: Till, when its flight hath past                      [_Ep._ 8.


s: The goal where good kills evil with a kiss,


s: And heaven and hell one heart whence all the abyss


s: Throbs with love's music; from his trance


s: Love waking leads it home to her who stayed in France.


s: With roar of rushing wings and fires that bear


s: Toward north and south sonorous, east and west,


s: Forth of the dark wherein its records rest,


s: The story told of the ages, writ nor sung


s: One hand laid hold upon the lightning, one


s: Rose up to bear time witness what the sun


s: Had seen, and what the moon and stars of night


s: From dawn to dusk what ways man wandering trod


s: Even through the twilight of the gods to God.


s: Ringed with aurorean aureole of the sun,


s: To days that saw Christ's tears and hallowing breath


s: Put life for love's sake in the lips of death,


s: And years as waves whose brine was fire, whose foam


s: And knights whose lives were flights of eagles' wings,


s: And lives like snakes' lives of engendering kings;


s: And all the ravin of all the swords that reap


s: From all the billowing harvest-fields of fight;


s: And sounds of love-songs lovelier than the light.


s: The grim dim thrones of the east                     [_Ep._ 9.


s: Round the bright board where darkling centuries wait,


s: Glitter and groan with mortal food of fate;


s: And throne and cup and lamp's bright breath


s: Bear witness to their lord of only night and death.


s: With offering of an old man and a child,


s: Till, reeking from their monstrous eucharist,


s: The lips wax cold that murdered where they kissed,


s: Headless, and ease men's hungering hearts of fear


s: Lest God were none in heaven, to see nor hear,


s: And purge his own pollution with the flood


s: So first found healing, poisonous as it poured;


s: And on the clouds the archangel cleanse his sword.


s: From dream to dream, from darkness into shade,


s: From sunshine into sunlight, moves and lives


s: The steersman's eye, the helming hand that gives


s: Life to the wheels and wings that whirl along


s: The immeasurable impulse of the sphere of song


s: Beyond the washing of the waves of time,


s: Beyond all heights where no thought else may climb,


s: Beyond the darkling dust of suns that were,


s: And in the abyss whence all things move that are


s: Finds only living Love, the sovereign star.


s: Nor less the weight and worth                       [_Ep._ 10.


s: To wash all stain of tears and sins away,


s: In the winged shape of song with death to play:


s: And try with fire the heart elect for godlike things.


s: Among all woes whereunder poor men dwell


s: On earth his witness; but the strange deep sea,


s: What work should Love do there, to war with fate?


s: Watch, and wage war wide-eyed with all its wonders,


s: Lower than the lightnings of its waves, and thunders


s: Of seas less monstrous than the births they bred;


s: And conquer: then for prize of all toils past


s: Feel the sea close them in again at last.


s: Round one by man's hand masked with living laughter,


s: Watched with blind eyes as of a wakeful dove,


s: As fire on flesh feeds on the souls of men,


s: Divine and dark and bright and naked, strange


s: With ravenous thirst of life reversed and change,


s: As though the very heaven should shrivel and swell


s: To feel its light thrilled through with stings of fire.


s: Above a windier sea,                                [_Ep._ 11.


s: Fills heaven with blood-red and with rose-red beams


s: Flagrant and fragrant with strange deeds and dreams,


s: Dreams dyed as love's own flower, and deeds


s: That rapt conjecture metes with mounting eyes,


s: Loud with strange waves and lustrous with new spheres,


s: Shines, masked at once and manifest of years,


s: Shakespeare, a heaven of heavenly eyes beholden;


s: And forward years as backward years grow golden


s: Angels of wrath and love and truth and pity;


s: And higher on exiled eyes their natural city


s: Dawns down the depths of vision, more sublime


s: And eyes that wept above two dear sons dead


s: Grow saving stars to guard one hopeless head.


s: On streets and woodlands where in days long gone


s: Sweet love sang light and loud and deep and dear:


s: And far the trumpets of the dreadful year


s: Had pealed and wailed in darkness: last arose


s: The song of children, kindling as a rose


s: Whose face perfumes deep heaven with odorous light


s: And thrills all through the wings of souls in flight


s: Close as the press of children at His knee


s: Dreaming, as homeless on dark earth he trod,


s: The lips that praise him shall not know for God.


s: O sovereign spirit, above                           [_Ep._ 12.


s: All praise and prayer and incense undefiled!


s: The one thing lovelier than a little child,


s: And tenderer than such tears of love as angels weep.


s: That strove for sway upon his mind and mood


s: Fast bound at feet of either: but our lord,


s: The seer and singer of righteousness and wrong


s: Who stands now master of all the keys of song,


s: For him not twain but one thing twice divine;


s: Even as his speech and song are bread and wine


s: For all souls hungering and all hearts athirst


s: And both one sacrament of Love's great giving


s: To feed the spirit and sense of all souls living.


s: The mightiest soul put mortal raiment on


s: That came forth singing ever in man's ears


s: Of all souls with us, and through all these years


s: Rings yet the lordliest, waxen yet more strong,


s: That on our souls hath shed itself in song,


s: That with its procreant beams and showers were fed


s: Given all itself as air gives life and light,


s: The goodliest gift our age hath given, to be


s: Ours, while the sun gives glory to the sea.


s: For staff thy spirit, and our hearts for throne:


s: To no crowned head made humble but thine own;


s: d'un Crime_, 1877. In this place I must take occasion to


s: relieve my conscience from a sense of duty unfulfilled so


s: long as I for one have not uttered my own poor private


s: protest--worthless and weightless though it may seem, if


s: cast as a grain into the scale of public opinion--against


s: a projected insult at once to contemporary France and to


s: the present only less than to past generations of


s: _On the proposed desecration of Westminster Abbey


s: "Let us go hence." From the inmost shrine of grace


s: Where England holds the elect of all her dead


s: There comes a word like one of old time said


s: By gods of old cast out. Here is no place


s: At once for these and one of poisonous race.


s: Let each rise up from his dishallowed bed


s: And pass forth silent. Each divine veiled head


s: Shall speak in silence with averted face.


s: Who had the glory of all these graves in trust


s: Whose place is here no more. Let us go hence."


s: _Victor Hugo raconté par un témoin de sa vie_, 1863,


s: At the end of such a list, so incomparable as to seem


s: incredible, of one great man's good works, we may be


s: forgiven the alteration of a word even in a verse from


s: Æschylus which we cannot choose but apply once more to


s: this leader in the advance of men made perfect through


s: doom of trial and long wayfaring, whose progress he


s: furthers by example and stimulates by song:--


s: _(Copied by permission of Patterson & Sons)_


s: Scotland has probably produced a more patriotic and more extended


s: "Among the intelligent natives of the Highlands, it is well known


s: plan of 'The Modern Scottish Minstrel' restricts us to a period


s: ears of their children in the most plaintive measures. Innerlochy


s: "All that we have to offer belongs to recent times; but we cannot


s: propitious to the lilts and the luinneags, in which, as in her


s: "We are not aware that we need except any piece, out of the more


s: others that come into our own series, if we exclude the pathetic


s: 'Old Bard's Wish,' 'The Song of the Owl,' and, perhaps, Ian Lom's


s: the strangers of the mountain whom we are to introduce to their


s: Latin choral metres is a light effort to the difficulty of


s: imitating the rhythm, or representing the peculiar vein of these


s: paraphrase, must not talk of the poorness or triteness of the


s: execute our task; and we shall rejoice if even a very moderate


s: degree of success should attend our endeavours to obtain for the


s: sister muse some share of that popularity to which we believe her


s: The Swiss cowherd's song in a foreign land,


s: Hail to the chief who in triumph advances,


s: Oh, say not, my love, with that mortified air,


s: Mairi bhān ōg (Mary, the young, the fair-haired),


s: Among those modern Scottish poets whose lives, by extending to a


s: Episcopal or non-juring clergy of Scotland. They bore the latter


s: And passing rich with forty pounds a-year;


s: Remote from towns he ran his godly race,


s: Nor e'er had changed, nor wish'd to change his place."


s: "Amusements of Leisure Hours; or, Poetical Pieces, chiefly in the


s: And danced and sung, and sigh'd and swore,


s: To _friendship's_ port I steer'd my course,


s: And _girls_, and _friends_, and _books_, and so,


s: E'en tune your pipe and please yourselves


s: There is nothing in it all to confound us:


s: And our bairns and our oys all around us;


s: And we 've jogg'd on, and toil'd for the ae thing;


s: When we got the bit meat and the claithing;


s: We have lived all our lifetime contented,


s: Since the day we became first acquainted:


s: When we had any stock, we ne'er vauntit,


s: Nor did we hing our heads when we wantit;


s: When it pleased a kind Heaven to grant it;


s: To be pleased with ourselves, and be healthy;


s: What though we cannot boast of our guineas?


s: Than a bag full of poor yellow steinies;


s: Then why should people brag of prosperity?


s: Yet we never were reduced to need charity;


s: Where we 've long been a father and mither;


s: Then why should old age so much wound us? &c.


s: This tune requires O to be added at the end of each of the long


s: lines, but in reading the song the O is better omitted.


s: It has long been my fate to be thought in the _wrong_,


s: The wise and the wealthy still make it their song,


s: There is nothing I do, and there 's nothing I say,


s: And to please them I find there is no other way,


s: But do nothing, and still hold my tongue.


s: Says the free-thinking Sophist, "The times are refined


s: Your old-fashion'd faith does but fetter the mind,


s: And it 's _wrong_ not to seek to be free."


s: Says the sage Politician, "Your natural share


s: Than thus to crawl on in your present low sphere,


s: And it 's _wrong_ in you not to aspire."


s: Says the Man of the World, "Your dull stoic life


s: You have children to care for, as well as a wife,


s: And it 's _wrong_ not to lay up for them."


s: Says the fat Gormandiser, "To eat and to drink


s: Life is nothing without it, whate'er you may think,


s: And it 's _wrong_ not to live while you can."


s: Says the new-made Divine, "Your old modes we reject,


s: It is manners and dress that procure us respect,


s: And it 's _wrong_ to look for it without them."


s: Says the grave peevish Saint, in a fit of the spleen,


s: A parson that 's blythe is a shame to be seen,


s: And it 's _wrong_ in you even to smile."


s: Says the Clown, when I tell him to do what he ought,


s: To obey you in this I will never be brought,


s: And it 's _wrong_ to be meddling with me."


s: Says my Wife, when she wants this or that for the house,


s: Your reading and writing is not worth a souse,


s: And it 's _wrong_ to neglect the house so."


s: Thus all judge of me by their taste or their wit,


s: Who in one point agree, though in others they split,


s: That in something I 'm still in the _wrong_.


s: But let them say on to the end of the song,


s: If to differ from such be to be in the _wrong_,


s: Bonny Lizzy Liberty, there 's ow'r mony wooing at her!


s: Bonny Lizzy Liberty, wow, sae mony 's wooing at her!


s: They 're wooing at her, fain would hae her,


s: Bonny Lizzy Liberty, wow, sae mony 's wooing at her.


s: Syn Dutch Mynheer made courtship till her,


s: Bonny Lizzy Liberty has ow'r mony wooing at her.


s: Filthy elf, she 's nae herself, wi' sae mony wooing at her.


s: Though Yankie 's nae yet worth a boddle,


s: And swears that nane but he sall hae her,


s: Though he sud wade through bluid and gore,


s: It 's nae the king sall keep him frae her:


s: For France, nor yet her Flanders' frien',


s: Need na think that she 'll come to them;


s: And grace and guid have flown frae them;


s: They 're wooing at her, fain wad hae her,


s: There 's nane can say what he wad gi'e her:


s: And swears, till he sall breathe his last,


s: Bonny Lizzy Liberty, there 's ow'r mony wooing at her.


s: Ye 're weel, and wat'sna, lad, they 're sayin',


s: How happy a life does the Parson possess,


s: Who would be no greater, nor fears to be less;


s: Who depends on his book and his gown for support,


s: And derives no preferment from conclave or court!


s: Without glebe or manse settled on him by law,


s: No stipend to sue for, nor vic'rage to draw;


s: In discharge of his office he holds him content,


s: With a croft and a garden, for which he pays rent.


s: With a neat little cottage and furniture plain,


s: And a spare room to welcome a friend now and then;


s: With a good-humour'd wife in his fortune to share,


s: And ease him at all times of family care.


s: With a few of the Fathers, the oldest and best,


s: And some modern extracts pick'd out from the rest;


s: To afford him instruction each day of the week.


s: He thankfully trusts to the kindness of Heaven;


s: To religion and virtue he trains them while young,


s: And with such a provision he does them no wrong.


s: With labour below, and with help from above,


s: He cares for his flock, and is bless'd with their love:


s: Though his living, perhaps, in the main may be scant,


s: He is sure, while they have, that he 'll ne'er be in want.


s: With no worldly projects nor hurries perplex'd,


s: He sits in his closet and studies his text;


s: And while he converses with Moses or Paul,


s: He envies not bishop, nor dean in his stall.


s: Not proud to the poor, nor a slave to the great,


s: Neither factious in church, nor pragmatic in state,


s: He keeps himself quiet within his own sphere,


s: And finds work sufficient in preaching and prayer.


s: In what little dealings he 's forced to transact,


s: He determines with plainness and candour to act;


s: And the great point on which his ambition is set,


s: Is to leave at the last neither riches nor debt.


s: Thus calmly he steps through the valley of life,


s: Unencumber'd with wealth, and a stranger to strife;


s: On the bustlings around him unmoved he can look,


s: And at home always pleased with his wife and his book.


s: And when, in old age, he drops into the grave,


s: This humble remembrance he wishes to have:


s: "By good men respected, by the evil oft tried,


s: Contented he lived, and lamented he died!"


s: The sufferer straight knows where to go,


s: There were not then high capering heads,


s: Oh, the times, the weary, weary times! &c.


s: There 's nothing now prevails but pride,


s: Cameron, on the restoration of the forfeited estates by Act of


s: Through toils of war, his native plains,


s: Through all your bounds let gladness reign,


s: The streams of plenty round your shores;


s: Regiment of Light Horse, and afterwards physician in Savoy. By


s: contracting an early marriage, in which affection overcame more


s: prudential considerations, both her parents gave offence to their


s: The sun sets in night, and the stars shun the day,


s: But glory remains when their lights fade away.


s: Begin, ye tormentors, your threats are in vain,


s: For the son of Alknomook will never complain.


s: Remember the arrows he shot from his bow;


s: Remember your chiefs by his hatchet laid low.


s: Why so slow? Do you wait till I shrink from the pain?


s: No! the son of Alknomook shall never complain.


s: Remember the wood where in ambush we lay,


s: And the scalps which we bore from your nation away:


s: Now the flame rises fast; ye exult in my pain;


s: But the son of Alknomook can never complain.


s: I go to the land where my father is gone;


s: His ghost shall rejoice in the fame of his son.


s: Death comes, like a friend, to relieve me from pain,


s: And thy son, O Alknomook! has scorn'd to complain.


s: "For why," she cries, "sit still and weep,


s: My love, the pride of swains, was drown'd.


s: Of the "Flowers of the Forest," two other versions appear in the


s: Those accents which, though heard no more,


s: Twined every joy, and care, and thought,


s: These lines were addressed by Mrs Hunter to her daughter, on the


s: At threesomes they dance wondrous light,


s: Come, lads, and view your partners weel,


s: She 's ta'en the carl, and left her Johnnie!


s: An' weel could dance the Hieland walloch!


s: Dr Couper published "Poetry, chiefly in the Scottish Language"


s: Deep murmurs through her glens the Spey,


s: TUNE--_"The Mucking o' Geordie's Byre."_


s: Oh, grand bounds the deer o'er the mountain,


s: And smooth skims the hare o'er the plain;


s: The laird sings his dogs and his dearie--


s: The storm soughin' wild drives me to thee,


s: And the plaid shelters baith me and thee.


s: My plaid haps us baith in the sheeling--


s: Thou wast fair, thou wast bonnie, my Marion,


s: There we loved, there thou promised, my Marion,


s: Crouse we skipt to the ha' i' the gloamin',


s: Fell war tore me lang frae thee, Marion,


s: numerous relatives, she contrived to find leisure for occasional


s: respecting any composition in Scottish verse.


s: In the "Pirate," published in 1823, the author of "Waverley" had


s: "Nae langer she wept, her tears were a' spent;


s: Despair it was come, and she thought it content;


s: She thought it content, but her cheek it grew pale,


s: And she droop'd like a snowdrop broke down by the hail!"


s: "She was entertaining a large party of distinguished guests at


s: When the sheep are in the fauld, and the kye 's come hame,


s: The waes o' my heart fa' in showers frae my e'e,


s: Unkent by my gudeman, wha sleeps sound by me.


s: Young Jamie lo'ed me weel, and he sought me for his bride,


s: But saving a crown-piece, he had naething beside;


s: To make the crown a pound, my Jamie gaed to sea,


s: And the crown and the pound they were baith for me.


s: He hadna been gane a twelvemonth and a day,


s: When my father brake his arm, and the cow was stown away;


s: My mither she fell sick--my Jamie at the sea;


s: My father couldna wark, and my mither couldna spin;


s: I toil'd day and night, but their bread I couldna win;--


s: Auld Rob maintain'd them baith, and, wi' tears in his e'e,


s: Said, "Jeanie, oh, for their sakes, will ye no marry me?"


s: My heart it said na, and I look'd for Jamie back;


s: But hard blew the winds, and his ship was a wrack;


s: The ship was a wrack--why didna Jamie dee?


s: My father urged me sair--my mither didna speak;


s: But she look'd in my face till my heart was like to break;


s: They gied him my hand--my heart was in the sea--


s: I hadna been his wife a week but only four,


s: When, mournfu' as I sat on the stane at my door,


s: I saw my Jamie's ghaist, for I couldna think it he,


s: Till he said, "I'm come hame, love, to marry thee."


s: Oh, sair, sair did we greet, and mickle say of a';


s: I gied him a kiss, and bade him gang awa';--


s: I wish that I were dead, but I'm nae like to dee;


s: For though my heart is broken, I'm but young, wae is me!


s: I gang like a ghaist, and carena much to spin;


s: I darena think o' Jamie, for that wad be a sin;


s: The spring had pass'd over, 'twas summer nae mair,


s: And, trembling, were scatter'd the leaves in the air;


s: "Oh, winter," cried Jeanie, "we kindly agree,


s: For wae looks the sun when he shines upon me."


s: Nae langer she wept, her tears were a' spent;


s: Despair it was come, and she thought it content;


s: She thought it content, but her cheek was grown pale,


s: And she droop'd like a snow-drop broke down by the hail.


s: Her father was sad, and her mother was wae,


s: But silent and thoughtfu' was auld Robin Gray;


s: He wander'd his lane, and his face was as lean


s: As the side of a brae where the torrents have been.


s: He gaed to his bed, but nae physic would take,


s: And often he said, "It is best, for her sake!"


s: While Jeanie supported his head as he lay,


s: The tears trickled down upon auld Robin Gray.


s: "Oh, greet nae mair, Jeanie!" said he, wi' a groan;


s: "I 'm nae worth your sorrow--the truth maun be known;


s: Send round for your neighbours--my hour it draws near,


s: And I 've that to tell that it 's fit a' should hear.


s: "I 've wrang'd her," he said, "but I kent it o'er late;


s: I 've wrang'd her, and sorrow is speeding my date;


s: But a 's for the best, since my death will soon free


s: A faithfu' young heart, that was ill match'd wi' me.


s: The auld folks were for me, but still she said nay;


s: I kentna o' Jamie, nor yet o' her vow;--


s: In mercy forgi'e me, 'twas I stole the cow!


s: "I cared not for crummie, I thought but o' thee;


s: I thought it was crummie stood 'twixt you and me;


s: While she fed your parents, oh! did you not say,


s: You never would marry wi' auld Robin Gray?


s: "But sickness at hame, and want at the door--


s: You gi'ed me your hand, while your heart it was sore;


s: Oh, that was a deed to my shame o'er the land!


s: "How truth, soon or late, comes to open daylight!


s: For Jamie cam' back, and your cheek it grew white;


s: White, white grew your cheek, but aye true unto me.


s: Oh, Jeanie, I 'm thankfu'--I 'm thankfu' to dee!


s: "Is Jamie come here yet?" and Jamie he saw;


s: "I 've injured you sair, lad, so I leave you my a';


s: Be kind to my Jeanie, and soon may it be!


s: Waste no time, my dauties, in mournin' for me."


s: They kiss'd his cauld hands, and a smile o'er his face


s: Seem'd hopefu' of being accepted by grace;


s: "Oh, doubtna," said Jamie, "forgi'en he will be,


s: Wha wadna be tempted, my love, to win thee?"


s: The first days were dowie, while time slipt awa';


s: Was thinking she couldna be honest and right,


s: Wi' tears in her e'e, while her heart was sae light.


s: But nae guile had she, and her sorrow away,


s: The wife of her Jamie, the tear couldna stay;


s: A bonnie wee bairn--the auld folks by the fire--


s: Oh, now she has a' that her heart can desire!


s: "Nae questions he spier'd her concerning her health,


s: He look'd at her often, but aye 'twas by stealth;


s: When his heart it grew grit, and, sighin', he feign'd


s: To gang to the door to see if it rain'd."


s: Then perch'd on his head with the prize;


s: "'And sweetly the nightingale sung from the tree.'


s: "'Twas summer, and softly the breezes were blowing,


s: And sweetly the _wood-pigeon coo'd from the tree_;


s: At the foot of a rock, where the _wild rose was growing_,


s: I sat myself down on the banks of the Dee."


s: 'Twas summer, and softly the breezes were blowing,


s: And sweetly the nightingale sung from the tree,


s: At the foot of a rock where the river was flowing,


s: I sat myself down on the banks of the Dee.


s: Flow on, lovely Dee, flow on, thou sweet river,


s: Thy banks' purest stream shall be dear to me ever,


s: For there first I gain'd the affection and favour


s: Of Jamie, the glory and pride of the Dee.


s: But now he 's gone from me, and left me thus mourning,


s: To quell the proud rebels--for valiant is he;


s: And, ah! there's no hope of his speedy returning,


s: To wander again on the banks of the Dee.


s: He 's gone, hapless youth! o'er the rude roaring billows,


s: The kindest and sweetest of all the gay fellows,


s: And left me to wander 'mongst those once loved willows,


s: The loneliest maid on the banks of the Dee.


s: But time and my prayers may perhaps yet restore him,


s: Blest peace may restore my dear shepherd to me;


s: And when he returns, with such care I 'll watch o'er him,


s: He never shall leave the sweet banks of the Dee.


s: The Dee then shall flow, all its beauties displaying,


s: The lambs on its banks shall again be seen playing,


s: While I with my Jamie am carelessly straying,


s: And tasting again all the sweets of the Dee.


s: subsequently endeavoured to suppress. For several years, Macneill


s: manners, and a decorum of expression, with no small skill in the


s: dramatic management of the stories." The ballad of "Scotland's


s: During his latter years, Macneill was much cherished among the


s: Stirling, for communicating some interesting letters of Macneill,


s: "Oh, saw ye my wee thing? saw ye my ain thing?


s: Cross'd she the meadow yestreen at the gloamin'?


s: Sought she the burnie whare flow'rs the haw-tree?


s: Her hair it is lint-white; her skin it is milk-white;


s: Dark is the blue o' her saft rolling e'e;


s: Red, red her ripe lips, and sweeter than roses:


s: Whare could my wee thing wander frae me?"


s: "I saw na your wee thing, I saw na your ain thing,


s: Nor saw I your true love, down on yon lea;


s: But I met my bonnie thing, late in the gloamin',


s: Down by the burnie whare flow'rs the haw-tree.


s: Her hair it was lint-white; her skin it was milk-white;


s: Dark was the blue o' her saft rolling e'e;


s: Red were her ripe lips, and sweeter than roses:


s: Sweet were the kisses that she ga'e to me!"


s: "It was na my wee thing, it was na my ain thing,


s: It was na my true love, ye met by the tree:


s: Proud is her leal heart--modest her nature;


s: She never lo'ed ony till ance she lo'ed me.


s: Her name it is Mary; she 's frae Castlecary;


s: Aft has she sat, when a bairn, on my knee;--


s: Fair as your face is, were 't fifty times fairer,


s: Young bragger, she ne'er would gi'e kisses to thee."


s: "It was, then, your Mary; she 's frae Castlecary;


s: It was, then, your true love I met by the tree;--


s: Proud as her heart is, and modest her nature,


s: Sweet were the kisses that she ga'e to me."


s: Sair gloom'd his dark brow, blood-red his cheek grew;


s: Wild flash'd the fire frae his red rolling e'e--


s: "Ye 's rue sair, this morning, your boasts and your scorning;


s: Defend, ye fause traitor! fu' loudly ye lie."


s: "Awa' wi' beguiling," cried the youth, smiling;--


s: Aff went the bonnet; the lint-white locks flee;


s: The belted plaid fa'ing, her white bosom shawing--


s: Fair stood the lo'ed maid wi' the dark rolling e'e.


s: "Is it my wee thing? is it mine ain thing?


s: "Oh, Jamie, forgi'e me! your heart 's constant to me;


s: I 'll never mair wander, dear laddie, frae thee!"


s: This song was first published, in May 1791, in _The Bee_, an


s: Edinburgh periodical, conducted by Dr James Anderson.


s: Ye 'se get it a', were 't ten times mair,


s: She 's gi'en me meat, she 's gi'en me claise,


s: We 'll gi'e her meat, we 'll gi'e her claise,


s: Say, maun I roose your cheeks like the morning?


s: Lips, like the roses, fresh moisten'd wi' dew;


s: Say, maun I roose your een's pawkie scorning?


s: "Far hae I wander'd to see thee, dear lassie!


s: Far hae I travell'd ower moorland and mountain,


s: Houseless and weary, sleep'd cauld on the lea.


s: Ne'er hae I tried yet to mak love to onie,


s: For ne'er lo'ed I onie till ance I lo'ed you;


s: Now we 're alane in the green-wood sae bonnie--


s: "What care I for your wand'ring, young laddie?


s: It was na for naething ye left poor young Peggie;


s: It was for my tocher ye cam' to court me.


s: Ribbons, and perlins, and breast-knots enew?


s: A house that is canty, with wealth in 't, my laddie?


s: Without this ye never need try for to woo."


s: I 've naething to brag o' house, or o' plenty,


s: I 've little to gi'e, but a heart that is true.


s: I cam' na for tocher--I ne'er heard o' onie;


s: I never lo'ed Peggy, nor e'er brak my vow:


s: I 've wander'd, puir fule! for a face fause as bonnie:


s: I little thocht this was the way for to woo."


s: "Our laird has fine houses, and guineas o' gowd


s: He 's youthfu', he 's blooming, and comely to see.


s: The leddies are a' ga'en wud for the wooer,


s: And yet, ilka e'ening, he leaves them for me.


s: Oh, saft in the gloaming, his love he discloses!


s: And saftly, yestreen, as I milked my cow,


s: He swore that my breath it was sweeter than roses,


s: And a' the gait hame he did naething but woo."


s: "Ah, Jenny! the young laird may brag o' his siller,


s: His houses, his lands, and his lordly degree;


s: His speeches for _true love_ may drap sweet as honey,


s: But trust me, dear Jenny, he ne'er lo'ed like _me_.


s: The wooin' o' gentry are fine words o' fashion--


s: The faster they fa' as the heart is least true;


s: The heart that feels maist is the least fit to woo."


s: "Hae na ye roosed my cheeks like the morning?


s: Hae na ye come ower sea, moor, and mountain?


s: Now that ye 've found me, there 's nae cause to rue;


s: Wi' health we 'll hae plenty--I 'll never gang gaudie;


s: I ne'er wish'd for mair than a heart that is true."


s: She hid her fair face in her true lover's bosom,


s: The saft tear o' transport fill'd ilk lover's e'e;


s: The burnie ran sweet by their side as they sabbit,


s: And sweet sang the mavis aboon on the tree.


s: He clasp'd her, he press'd her, and ca'd her his hinny;


s: And aften he tasted her honey-sweet mou';


s: And aye, 'tween ilk kiss, she sigh'd to her Johnnie,


s: Mr Graham, of Gartmore, an intimate friend of Hector Macneill,


s: This was published by Sir Walter Scott, in the "Minstrelsy of the


s: Oh, no! Mary Bawn, ye 'll nae mair deceive me.


s: Oh, no! Mary Bawn; thrice ye 'll ne'er deceive me.


s: Oh, no! Johnnie doo, Johnnie doo, Johnnie doo;


s: Oh, no! Johnnie doo--love could ne'er deceive ye."


s: Oh, no! Mary Bawn, Mary Bawn, dear Mary Bawn;


s: Oh, no; Mary Bawn--love has nae beguiling.


s: "Come under my plaidie, the night 's gaun to fa';


s: Come in frae the cauld blast, the drift, and the snaw;


s: Come under my plaidie, and sit down beside me,


s: There 's room in 't, dear lassie, believe me, for twa.


s: I 'll hap ye frae every cauld blast that can blaw:


s: Oh, come under my plaidie, and sit down beside me!


s: There 's room in 't, dear lassie, believe me, for twa."


s: "Gae 'wa wi' your plaidie, auld Donald, gae 'wa,


s: I fear na the cauld blast, the drift, nor the snaw;


s: Gae 'wa wi' your plaidie, I 'll no sit beside ye;


s: Ye may be my gutcher;--auld Donald, gae 'wa.


s: I 'm gaun to meet Johnnie, he 's young and he 's bonnie;


s: He 's been at Meg's bridal, fu' trig and fu' braw;


s: Oh, nane dances sae lightly, sae gracefu', sae tightly!


s: His cheek 's like the new rose, his brow 's like the snaw."


s: "Dear Marion, let that flee stick fast to the wa';


s: Your Jock 's but a gowk, and has naething ava;


s: The hale o' his pack he has now on his back--


s: He 's thretty, and I am but threescore and twa.


s: Be frank now and kindly; I 'll busk ye aye finely;


s: To kirk or to market they 'll few gang sae braw;


s: A bein house to bide in, a chaise for to ride in,


s: And flunkies to 'tend ye as aft as ye ca'."


s: "My father 's aye tauld me, my mither and a',


s: Ye 'd mak a gude husband, and keep me aye braw;


s: It 's true I lo'e Johnnie, he 's gude and he 's bonnie;


s: But, waes me! ye ken he has naething ava.


s: I hae little tocher; you 've made a gude offer;


s: I 'm now mair than twenty--my time is but sma';


s: Sae gi'e me your plaidie, I 'll creep in beside ye--


s: I thocht ye 'd been aulder than threescore and twa."


s: She crap in ayont him, aside the stane wa',


s: Whare Johnnie was list'ning, and heard her tell a';


s: The day was appointed, his proud heart it dunted,


s: And strack 'gainst his side as if bursting in twa.


s: He wander'd hame weary, the night it was dreary;


s: And, thowless, he tint his gate 'mang the deep snaw;


s: The owlet was screamin' while Johnnie cried, "Women


s: Wad marry Auld Nick if he 'd keep them aye braw."


s: Yet how sweet are the tears as they fa'!


s: "Ne'er heed what the auld anes will say;


s: Though we 've little to brag o', near fear--


s: Now we, though we 've naething but health,


s: Guard your treasures wi' lock, bar, and door,


s: Play your pranks--I hae gi'en my consent,


s: The first stanza of this song, along with a second, which is


s: My luve 's in Germanie, send him hame, send him hame;


s: He 's as brave as brave can be--send him hame, send him hame;


s: He 's as brave as brave can be--send him hame;


s: Your luve ne'er learnt to flee, bonnie dame, bonnie dame,


s: Your luve ne'er learnt to flee, bonnie dame;


s: He 'll ne'er come ower the sea--Willie 's slain, Willie 's slain;


s: "Oh, dinna think, bonnie lassie, I 'm gaun to leave thee!


s: Dinna think, bonnie lassie, I 'm gaun to leave thee;


s: I 'll tak a stick into my hand, and come again and see thee."


s: "Far 's the gate ye hae to gang; dark 's the night, and eerie;


s: Far 's the gate ye hae to gang; dark 's the night, and eerie;


s: Oh, stay this night wi' your love, and dinna gang and leave me."


s: "It 's but a night and hauf a day that I 'll leave my dearie;


s: But a night and hauf a day that I 'll leave my dearie;


s: "Dinna gang, my bonnie lad, dinna gang and leave me;


s: Dinna gang, my bonnie lad, dinna gang and leave me;


s: When a' the lave are sound asleep, I 'm dull and eerie;


s: And a' the lee-lang night I 'm sad, wi' thinking on my dearie."


s: "Waves are rising o'er the sea; winds blaw loud and fear me;


s: Waves are rising o'er the sea; winds blaw loud and fear me;


s: While the winds and waves do roar, I am wae and drearie;


s: And gin ye lo'e me as ye say, ye winna gang and leave me."


s: "Oh, never mair, bonnie lassie, will I gang and leave thee!


s: Never mair, bonnie lassie, will I gang and leave thee;


s: Frae his hand he coost his stick; "I winna gang and leave thee;"


s: Threw his plaid into the neuk; "Never can I grieve thee;"


s: Drew his boots, and flang them by; cried, "My lass, be cheerie;


s: America, she retained a distinct recollection of her landing at


s: On a small farm which she had rented, in the vicinity of her late


s: "Oh, where, tell me where, is your Highland laddie gone?


s: Oh, where, tell me where, is your Highland laddie gone?"


s: "He 's gone, with streaming banners, where noble deeds are done,


s: And my sad heart will tremble till he come safely home.


s: He 's gone, with streaming banners, where noble deeds are done,


s: And my sad heart will tremble till he come safely home."


s: "Oh, where, tell me where, did your Highland laddie stay?


s: Oh, where, tell me where, did your Highland laddie stay?"


s: "He dwelt beneath the holly-trees, beside the rapid Spey,


s: And many a blessing follow'd him, the day he went away.


s: He dwelt beneath the holly-trees, beside the rapid Spey,


s: And many a blessing follow'd him, the day he went away."


s: "Oh, what, tell me what, does your Highland laddie wear?


s: Oh, what, tell me what, does your Highland laddie wear?"


s: "A bonnet with a lofty plume, the gallant badge of war,


s: And a plaid across the manly breast that yet shall wear a star;


s: A bonnet with a lofty plume, the gallant badge of war,


s: And a plaid across the manly breast that yet shall wear a star."


s: "Suppose, ah, suppose, that some cruel, cruel wound,


s: Should pierce your Highland laddie, and all your hopes confound!"


s: The pipe would play a cheering march, the banners round him fly,


s: And for his king and country dear with pleasure he would die!"


s: "But I will hope to see him yet, in Scotland's bonny bounds;


s: But I will hope to see him yet, in Scotland's bonny bounds.


s: His native land of liberty shall nurse his glorious wounds,


s: See the _Encyclopædia Britannica_, vol. xxi. p. 170.


s: This song originally consisted of two stanzas, the third stanza


s: stanzas. Burns deemed Mayne's version an elder production of the


s: Though Heaven forbids my wrath to swell,


s: Then from this world of doubts and sighs,


s: During the reign of Mary, Queen of Scots, a young lady, of great


s: The winter sat lang on the spring o' the year,


s: Our seedtime was late, and our mailing was dear;


s: My mither tint her heart when she look'd on us a',


s: And we thought upon those that were farest awa'.


s: Oh, were they but here that are farest awa'!


s: Oh, were they but here that are dear to us a'!


s: Our cares would seem light and our sorrow but sma',


s: If they were but here that are far frae us a'!


s: Last week, when our hopes were o'erclouded wi' fear,


s: And nae ane at hame the dull prospect to cheer;


s: Our Johnnie has written, frae far awa' parts,


s: A letter that lightens and hauds up our hearts.


s: He says, "My dear mither, though I be awa',


s: In love and affection I 'm still wi' ye a';


s: While I hae a being ye 'se aye hae a ha',


s: Wi' plenty to keep out the frost and the snaw."


s: My mither, o'erjoy'd at this change in her state,


s: By the bairn she doated on early and late,


s: Gi'es thanks night and day to the Giver of a',


s: There 's been naething unworthy o' him that 's awa'!


s: Then here is to them that are far frae us a',


s: The friend that ne'er fail'd us, though farest awa'!


s: Health, peace, and prosperity wait on us a';


s: And a blithe comin' hame to the friend that 's awa'!


s: Though war's alarms, and Johnnie's charms,


s: She thought, if fortune had but smiled--


s: "Ah! who will watch thee as thou sleep'st?


s: I 'll deck your hair, sae fair and lang,


s: Then, though my kin should scauld and ban,


s: Cauld blaws the wind frae north to south;


s: When snaw blaws in at the chimley cheek,


s: These stanzas are founded on some lines of old doggerel,


s: Sweet was our walk, more sweet our talk,


s: Last midsummer's morning, as going to the fair,


s: I met with young Jamie, wh'as taking the air;


s: He ask'd me to stay with him, and indeed he did prevail,


s: Beneath the pretty hawthorn that blooms in the vale--


s: That blooms in the valley, that blooms in the vale,


s: Beneath the pretty hawthorn that blooms in the vale.


s: He said he had loved me both long and sincere,


s: That none on the green was so gentle and fair;


s: I listen'd with pleasure to Jamie's tender tale,


s: "Oh, haste," says he, "to hear the birds in the grove,


s: How charming their song, and enticing to love!


s: The briers that with roses perfume the passing gale,


s: And meet the pretty hawthorn that blooms in the vale"--


s: His words were so moving, and looks soft and kind,


s: Convinced me the youth had nae guile in his mind;


s: My heart, too, confess'd him the flower of the dale,


s: Yet I oft bade him go, for I could no longer stay,


s: But leave me he would not, nor let me away;


s: Still pressing his suit, and at last did prevail,


s: Now tell me, ye maidens, how could I refuse?


s: His words were so sweet, and so binding his vows!


s: We went and were married, and Jamie loves me still,


s: And we live beside the hawthorn that blooms in the vale--


s: That blooms in the valley, that blooms in the vale,


s: We live beside the hawthorn that blooms in the vale.


s: unmarried, and continued to live with her under the same roof.


s: From the pale willow snatch'd the treasure,


s: Deem'd their own Shakspeare lived again."


s: Each tyrant passion shews his woe and rage."


s: I 've no sheep on the mountain, nor boat on the lake,


s: Nor corn in my garner, nor fruit on my tree--


s: Yet the maid of Llanwellyn smiles sweetly on me.


s: Soft tapping, at eve, to her window I came,


s: And loud bay'd the watch-dog, loud scolded the dame;


s: For shame, silly Lightfoot; what is it to thee,


s: Though the maid of Llanwellyn smiles sweetly on me?


s: Rich Owen will tell you, with eyes full of scorn,


s: Threadbare is my coat, and my hosen are torn:


s: Scoff on, my rich Owen, for faint is thy glee


s: When the maid of Llanwellyn smiles sweetly on me.


s: The farmer rides proudly to market or fair,


s: The clerk, at the alehouse, still claims the great chair;


s: But of all our proud fellows the proudest I 'll be,


s: While the maid of Llanwellyn smiles sweetly on me.


s: For blythe as the urchin at holiday play,


s: And meek as the matron in mantle of gray,


s: Is the maid of Llanwellyn who smiles upon me.


s: It needs must be, Good night, good night!


s: No foot bounds there, Good night, good night!


s: As this now gone--Good night, good night!


s: Gay dreams to all! Good night, good night!


s: Who haunts thy dwelling, night and noon,


s: Nor altered looks, nor friendship flown;


s: When white was my owrelay as foam of the linn,


s: When my lambkins were bleating on meadow and brae,


s: As I gaed to my love in new cleeding sae gay--


s: How swift pass'd the minutes and hours of delight!


s: The piper play'd cheerly, the cruisie burn'd bright;


s: And link'd in my hand was the maiden sae dear,


s: As she footed the floor in her holiday gear.


s: We met at the fair, and we met at the kirk;


s: We met in the sunshine, we met in the mirk;


s: And the sound of her voice, and the blinks of her een,


s: The cheering and life of my bosom have been.


s: At bridal and in fair I 've braced me wi' pride,


s: The _bruse_ I hae won, and a kiss of the bride;


s: And loud was the laughter, gay fellows among,


s: When I utter'd my banter, or chorus'd my song.


s: Wherever I gaed the blythe lasses smiled sweet,


s: And mithers and aunties were mair than discreet,


s: While kebbuck and bicker were set on the board;


s: But now they pass by me, and never a word.


s: But the hope of my love is a cure for its smart;


s: The spaewife has tauld me to keep up my heart;


s: For wi' my last sixpence her loof I hae cross'd,


s: And the bliss that is fated can never be lost.


s: Loud laughing and smooth-gabbit speering


s: She 'll flaunt wi' a silk gown upon her,


s: Repeat a' her jokes as they 're cleckit,


s: And thrawn-gabbit Madge, wha for certain


s: And Hugh, the town-writer, I 'm thinking,


s: For they will get sheep's-head and haggis,


s: Sic bobbing, and flinging, and whirling,


s: Oh, neighbours! what had I to do for to marry?


s: My wife she drinks posset and wine o' Canary;


s: O gin my wife wad drink hooly and fairly!


s: She sups, wi' her kimmers, on dainties enow,


s: Aye bowing, and smirking, and wiping her mou';


s: While I sit aside, and am helpit but sparely.


s: O gin my wife wad feast hooly and fairly!


s: To fairs, and to bridals, and preachings an' a',


s: She gangs sae light-headed, and buskit sae braw,


s: In ribbons and mantuas, that gar me gae barely.


s: O gin my wife wad spend hooly and fairly!


s: I' the kirk sic commotion last Sabbath she made,


s: Wi' babs o' red roses, and breast-knots o'erlaid;


s: The dominie stickit the psalm very nearly.


s: O gin my wife wad dress hooly and fairly!


s: She 's warring and flyting frae mornin' till e'en,


s: And if ye gainsay her, her een glower sae keen;


s: Then tongue, neive, and cudgel, she 'll lay on me sairly.


s: O gin my wife wad strike hooly and fairly!


s: When tired wi' her cantrips, she lies in her bed--


s: The wark a' negleckit, the chalmer unred--


s: While a' our gude neighbours are stirring sae early.


s: O gin my wife wad wark timely and fairly!


s: A word o' gude counsel or grace she 'll hear none;


s: She bandies the elders, and mocks at Mess John;


s: While back in his teeth his own text she flings sairly.


s: O gin my wife wad speak hooly and fairly!


s: I wish I were single, I wish I were freed;


s: I wish I were doited, I wish I were dead;


s: Or she in the mouls, to dement me nae mairly.


s: What does it 'vail to cry, Hooly and fairly!


s: Wasting my health to cry, Hooly and fairly.


s: The style of this song and the chorus are borrowed from "The


s: The weary pund, the weary pund, the weary pund o' tow,


s: I soothly think, ere it be spun, I 'll wear a lyart pow.


s: A lively young lass had a wee pickle tow,


s: And she thought to try the spinnin' o't;


s: She sat by the fire, and her rock took alow,


s: Loud and shrill was the cry that she utter'd, I ween;


s: The sudden mischanter brought tears to her een;


s: Her face it was fair, but her temper was keen;


s: She stamp'd on the floor, and her twa hands she wrung,


s: And fell was the outbreak o' words frae her tongue;


s: "Foul fa' the inventor o' rock and o' reel!


s: I hope, gude forgi'e me! he 's now wi' the d--l,


s: He brought us mair trouble than help, wot I weel;


s: "And now, when they 're spinnin' and kempin' awa',


s: They 'll talk o' my rock and the burnin' o't,


s: Into some silly joke will be turnin' it:


s: They 'll say I was doited, they 'll say I was fu';


s: They 'll say I was dowie, and Robin untrue;


s: They 'll say in the fire some luve-powther I threw,


s: "O curst be the day, and unchancy the hour,


s: When I sat me adown to the spinnin' o't!


s: Then some evil spirit or warlock had power,


s: May Spunkie my feet to the boggie betray,


s: The lunzie folk steal my new kirtle away,


s: And Robin forsake me for douce Effie Gray,


s: He 'll haud the plough, thrash i' the barn,


s: It fell on a morning when we were thrang--


s: Our kirn was gaun, our cheese was making,


s: That ane at the door chapp'd loud and lang;


s: But the auld gudewife, and her Mays sae tight,


s: Of this stirring and din took sma' notice, I ween;


s: For a chap at the door in braid daylight


s: Then the clocksie auld laird of the warlock glen,


s: Wha stood without, half cow'd, half cheerie.


s: And yearn'd for a sight of his winsome dearie,


s: Raised up the latch and came crousely ben.


s: His coat was new, and his owrelay was white,


s: And his hose and his mittens were coozy and bein;


s: But a wooer that comes in braid daylight


s: He greeted the carlin' and lasses sae braw,


s: And his bare lyart pow he smoothly straikit,


s: And looked about, like a body half glaikit,


s: On bonny sweet Nanny, the youngest of a':


s: "Ha, ha!" quo' the carlin', "and look ye that way?


s: Hoot! let nae sic fancies bewilder ye clean--


s: An elderlin' man, i' the noon o' the day,


s: Should be wiser than youngsters that come at e'en."


s: "Na, na," quo' the pawky auld wife; "I trow


s: You 'll fash na your head wi' a youthfu' gilly,


s: As wild and as skeigh as a muirland filly;


s: Black Madge is far better and fitter for you."


s: He hem'd and he haw'd, and he screw'd in his mouth,


s: And he squeezed his blue bonnet his twa hands between;


s: For wooers that come when the sun 's in the south


s: Are mair awkward than wooers that come at e'en.


s: "Black Madge she is prudent." "What 's that to me?"


s: "She is eident and sober, has sense in her noddle--


s: Is douce and respeckit." "I carena a boddle;


s: I 'll baulk na my luve, and my fancy 's free."


s: Madge toss'd back her head wi' a saucy slight,


s: And Nanny run laughing out to the green;


s: For wooers that come when the sun shines bright


s: Are no like the wooers that come at e'en.


s: Awa' flung the laird, and loud mutter'd he,


s: "All the daughters of Eve, between Orkney and Tweed, O:


s: Black and fair, young and old, dame, damsel, and widow,


s: May gang, wi' their pride, to the wuddy for me."


s: But the auld gudewife, and her Mays sae tight,


s: For a' his loud banning cared little, I ween;


s: For a wooer that comes in braid daylight


s: This song was contributed by Miss Baillie to "The Harp of


s: "Toot, toot!" quo' the gray-headed faither;


s: She 's ta'en like a cowt frae the heather,


s: Than if Kate o' the Craft were my bride,


s: She turn'd, and she blush'd, and she smiled,


s: And she play'd wi' the sleeve o' her gown;


s: Of the song, "Woo'd, and married, and a'," there is another


s: Seem short, though they were e'er sae lang."


s: Original and Selected," which extended to four volumes. To this


s: Whare through the birks the burnie rows,


s: For though the night were ne'er sae dark,


s: The two first stanzas of this song are the composition of the


s: Though some folks say ye 're auld, John,


s: Though the days are gane that we have seen,


s: TUNE--_"Ye Banks and Braes o' bonnie Doon."_


s: Fair, modest flower, of matchless worth!


s: Though storms of life were blowing snell,


s: Say what they like, I 'll bide their bang,


s: And bide a' nicht, though beds be thrang;


s: See _postea_, in this volume, under article "Lady Nairn."


s: A miscellaneous writer, a poet, and a musical composer, Alexander


s: Mr Campbell was twice married; his second wife was the widow of a


s: Earliest Times." His musical talents have a stronger claim to


s: Now winter's wind sweeps o'er the mountains,


s: The hawk whoops on high, and keen, keen from yon' cliff,


s: Lo! the eagle on watch eyes the stag cold and stiff;


s: The deer-hound, majestic, looks lofty around,


s: While he lists with delight to the harp's distant sound;


s: Is it swept by the gale, as it slow wafts along


s: The heart-soothing tones of an olden times' song?


s: Or is it some Druid who touches, unseen,


s: "The Harp of the North," newly strung now I ween?


s: 'Tis Albyn's own minstrel! and, proud of his name,


s: He proclaims him chief bard, and immortal his fame!--


s: He gives tongue to those wild lilts that ravish'd of old,


s: And soul to the tales that so oft have been told;


s: Hence Walter the Minstrel shall flourish for aye,


s: Will breathe in sweet airs, and live long as his "Lay;"


s: To ages unnumber'd thus yielding delight,


s: Which will last till the gloaming of Time's endless night.


s: Justice, by the title of Lord Corehouse.


s: Their toils are past, their sorrows o'er;


s: And those they loved their steps shall tread,


s: The hours once tinged in transport's dye;


s: The four first lines of the last stanza are by Burns.


s: Since Heaven such precious boons has lent,


s: Than that which still kind Heaven bestows,


s: And bless'd each flower that met my view;


s: That those who scorn'd me, time would melt,


s: These tender and beautiful verses are transcribed from Johnson's


s: Anderson's "Bee" he contributed several poems, and a prose essay,


s: Kingsessing, on the river Schuylkill, about four miles from


s: Philadelphia,--a situation which, though attended with limited


s: Amidst his extraordinary deserts as a naturalist, the merits of


s: excel." In private life, Wilson was a model of benevolence and of


s: The "Songs of Scotland," by Allan Cunningham, vol. i. p. 247.


s: The most complete collection of his poems appeared in a volume


s: Dark lowers the night o'er the wide stormy main,


s: Till mild rosy morning rise cheerful again;


s: Alas! morn returns to revisit the shore,


s: But Connel returns to his Flora no more.


s: For see, on yon mountain, the dark cloud of death,


s: O'er Connel's lone cottage, lies low on the heath;


s: While bloody and pale, on a far distant shore,


s: He lies, to return to his Flora no more.