Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

10

35 Yet once again, dear parted shade, Meek Nature's child, again adieu!

40

The genial meads, assign'd to bless

Thy life, shall mourn thy early doom; 20
Their hinds and shepherd girls shall dress
With simple hands thy rural tomb.

Long, long, thy stone and pointed clay
Shall melt the musing Briton's eyes;
O vales and wild woods, shall he say,
In yonder grave your druid lies!

AN ODE ON THE POPULAR SUPER-
STITIONS OF THE HIGHLANDS
OF SCOTLAND

CONSIDERED AS THE SUBJECT OF POETRY

1

1749

1788

H1 thou return 'st from Thames, whose naiads long

Have seen thee ling'ring, with a fond delay,

25

There must thou wake perforce thy Doric1 quill;

'Tis Fancy's land to which thou sett'st thy feet,

Where still, 'tis said, the fairy people meet

Beneath each birken shade on mead or hill.

There each trim lass that skims the milky store

To the swart tribes their creamy bowl allots;

By night they sip it round the cottage door,

While airy minstrels warble jocund notes.

There ev'ry herd, by sad experience, knows

How, wing'd with fate, their elf-shot arrows fly;

When the sick ewe her summer food foregoes,

Or, stretch'd on earth, the heart-smit heifers lie.

'Mid those soft friends, whose hearts, 30 Such airy beings awe

some future day,

Shall melt, perhaps, to hear thy tragic

song.

5 Go, not unmindful of that cordial
youth2

Whom, long-endear'd, thou leav'st by
Lavant's side;

Together let us wish him lasting truth,
And joy untainted, with his destined
bride.

Go! nor regardless, while these numbers

boast

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

swain:

th' untutor'd

[blocks in formation]

Ev'n yet preserv'd, how often may'st thou hear,

Where to the pole the boreal3 mountains run,

Taught by the father to his list'ning

son,

Strange lays, whose pow'r had charm'd a Spenser's ear.

40 At ev'ry pause, before thy mind possest, Old Runic bards shall seem to rise

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

55

60

When ev'ry shrieking maid her bosom beat,

And strew'd with choicest herbs his scented grave;

Or, whether, sitting in the shepherd's

shiel,1

Thou hear'st some sounding tale of war's alarms,

When, at the bugle's call, with fire and

steel,

[blocks in formation]

Saw at sad Falkirk all their hopes near crown'd,

The sturdy clans pour'd forth their 80 They rav'd, divining, thro' their second

[blocks in formation]

Who, now perhaps in lusty vigor seen And rosy health, shall soon lamented die.

65. For them the viewless forms of air obey, Their bidding heed, and at their beck

repair.

[blocks in formation]

They know what spirit brews the storm- 95 What tho' far off, from some dark dell

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

Far from his flocks and smoking ham- 135 Nor e'er of me one hapless thought let then,

[blocks in formation]

Meantime, the wat 'ry surge shall round him rise,

Pour'd sudden forth from ev'ry swelling source.

What now remains but tears and hopeless sighs?

His fear-shook limbs have lost their youthly force,

120 And down the waves he floats, a pale and breathless corse.

For him, in vain, his anxious wife shall wait,

Or wander forth to meet him on his way;

For him, in vain, at to-fall1 of the day,

His babes shall linger at th' unclosing

[blocks in formation]

140

145

renew,

[blocks in formation]

Once foes, perhaps, together now they rest;

No slaves revere them, and no wars invade:

150 Yet frequent now, at midnight's solemn hour,

The rifted mounds their yawning cells unfold,

And forth the monarchs stalk with sov 'reign pow'r,

In pageant robes, and wreath'd with sheeny gold,

And on their twilight tombs aërial council hold.

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

170

climb,

And of its eggs despoil the solan's1 nest.

Proceed, nor quit the tales which, simply told,

Could once so well my answ 'ring bosom

pierce;

Proceed! in forceful sounds and colors bold,

The native legends of thy land rehearse;

To such adapt thy lyre and suit thy pow'rful verse.

In scenes like these, which, daring to depart

From sober truth, are still to nature true,

And call forth fresh delight to Fancy's

view,

Th' heroic muse employ'd her Tasso's art!

How have I trembled, when, at Tancred's stroke,

Its gushing blood the gaping cypress pour'd ;1

Thus blest in primal innocence they 195 When each live plant with mortal ac

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

cents spoke,

And the wild blast upheav'd the

vanish'd sword!

How have I sat, when pip'd the pensive wind,

To hear his harp, by British Fairfax strung,

Prevailing poet, whose undoubting mind Believ'd the magic wonders which he

sung!

Hence at each sound imagination glows; [The MS. lacks a line here.]

Hence his warm lay with softest sweetness flows;

Melting it flows, pure, num 'rous,

strong, and clear,

And fills th' impassion'd heart, and wins th' harmonious ear.

[blocks in formation]
[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]
« AnteriorContinuar »