IONA Calm as the Universe, from specular towers XXXII IONA ON to Iona!-What can she afford To us save matter for a thoughtful sigh, Heaved over ruin with stability In urgent contrast? To diffuse the WORD (Thy Paramount, mighty Nature! and Time's Lord) Her Temples rose, ‚* 'mid pagan gloom; but why, Of mutability, those far-famed Piles Garlands shall wear of amaranthine bloom, While heaven's vast sea of voices chants their praise. 1 1840 and C. Suns and their systems, diverse yet sustained 2 1835. As the Supreme Geometer ordained. * St. Columba took up his residence at Iona, in 563.-ED. 1835. MS. 6 10 XXXIII IONA (UPON LANDING) How sad a welcome! To each voyager 1 Some ragged child holds up for sale a store 2 * 6 Strewn far and wide. Think, proud Philosopher! 5 Shall gild their passage to eternal rest.” † 5 ΙΟ 3 1835. With outstretched hands, round every voyager MS. * This refers to the modern parish Church on the Island, not to St. Oran's Chapel, or the Cathedral Church of St. Mary.-ED. The four last lines of this sonnet are adopted from a well-known sonnet THE BLACK STONES OF IONA 381 XXXIV THE BLACK STONES OF IONA [See Martin's Voyage among the Western Isles.*] HERE on their knees men swore; the stones were black,† Of conscience souls are placed by deeds that lack To Saint, or Fiend,2 or to the Godhead whom 1 1835. Here on their knees, they swore, the stones were black, MS. 5 10 2 1835. To saints, to fiends, MS. of Russel, as conveying my feeling better than any words of my own 2 could do.-W. W. 1835. These "last four lines" are taken from sonnet No. x. of Sonnets and Miscellaneous Poems, by the late Thomas Russell, Fellow of New College Oxford, printed for D. Price and J. Cooke, 1789. The Rev. Thomas Russell, author of those Sonnets, was born 1762, died 1788. He was a Wykehamist, and is referred to in a letter by Wordsworth to Dyce in 1833.-ED. * Description of the Western Islands of Scotland; including an account of the Manners, Customs, Religion, Language, Dress, etc., of the Inhabitants, by M. Martin, 1703.-ED. In Johnson's Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland the following occurs in the section on "Icolmkill:"—"The place is said to be known XXXV "HOMEWARD WE TURN. ISLE OF HOMEWARD we turn. Isle of Columba's Cell, Remote St. Kilda, lone and loved sea-mark * That thickens, spreads, and, mingling fold with fold, 1 1837. farewell! Remote St. Kilda, art thou visible? 1835. 5 10 where the Black Stones lie concealed, on which the old Highland chiefs, when they made contracts and alliances, used to take the oath, which was considered more sacred than any other obligation, and which could not be violated without the blackest infamy. In these days of violence and rapine, it was of great importance to impose upon savage minds the sanctity of an oath, by some particular and extraordinary circumstances-they would not have recourse to the Black Stones upon small or common occasions; and when they had established their faith by this tremendous sanction, inconstancy and treachery were no longer feared."-ED. * St. Kilda is sixty miles to the north-west of Harris, in the Outer Hebrides.-ED. THERE! SAID A STRIPLING 383 XXXVI GREENOCK Per me si va nella Città dolente.* : We have not passed into a doleful City, 5 Whose merchants Princes were, whose decks were thrones; Soon may the punctual sea in vain respire To serve thy need, in union with that Clyde Whose nursling current brawls o'er mossy stones, II XXXVII "THERE!" SAID A STRIPLING, POINTING WITH MEET PRIDE [Mosgiel was thus pointed out to me by a young man on the top of the coach on my way from Glasgow to Kilmarnock. It is remarkable that, though Burns lived some time here, Too busy Mart! thus fared it with old Tyre, * See Dante, Inferno, iii. 1.-ED. 1835. They came down from Inveraray to Loch Goil by Hell's Glen.-ED. Above Elvanfoot, near the watershed, at "Summit' "" on the Caledonian Railway line, where the Clyde rises.--ED. |