1746 For watchful, lurking, 'mid th' unrustling reed, 99 And frequent round him rolls his sullen eyes, Ah, luckless swain, o'er all unblest, indeed! But instant, furious, raise the whelming flood Meantime the watery surge shall round him rise, 110 What now remains but tears and hopeless sighs? For him in vain his anxious wife shall wait, Or wander forth to meet him on his way; Her travell❜d limbs in broken slumbers steep, 121 Shall fondly seem to press her shuddering cheek, 130 And with his blue-swollen face before her stand, I plagians from I 1 And, shivering cold, these piteous accents speak: 132 While I lie weltering on the osier'd shore, Drown'd by the Kelpie's1 wrath, nor e'er shall aid thee more!" Unbounded is thy range; with varied skill Thy Muse may, like those feathery tribes which spring From their rude rocks, extend her skirting wing 140 Round the moist marge of each cold Hebrid isle, To that hoar pile2 which still its ruins shows: In whose small vaults a pigmy folk is found, Whose bones the delver with his spade upthrows, And culls them, wondering, from the hallow'd ground! Or thither, where, beneath the showery west, The mighty kings of three fair realms are laid; Once foes, perhaps, together now they rest, No slaves revere them, and no wars invade : Yet frequent now, at midnight's solemn hour, The rifted mounds their yawning cells unfold, And forth the monarchs stalk with sovereign power, In pageant robes, and wreath'd with sheeny gold, And on their twilight tombs aërial council hold. But, oh, o'er all, forget not Kilda's race, 150 On whose bleak rocks, which brave the wasting tides, 160 Kelpie: the water fiend.-Hoar pile:' a ruined chapel in one of the Hebrides, called the Isle of Pigmies, where it is said that some bones of a small race of men have been dng up. Thither: Icolmkill, one of the Hebrides, where near sixty ancient Scottish, Irish, and Norwegian kings are interred. And all their prospect but the wintry main. With sparing temperance, at the needful time, Which tasteful toil and hourly danger give. Nor need'st thou blush that such false themes engage Thy gentle mind, of fairer stores possest ; For not alone they touch the village breast, But fill'd, in elder time, th' historic page. 162 170 There, Shakspeare's self, with every garland crown'd, Flew to those fairy climes his fancy sheen, In musing hour; his wayward sisters found, The shadowy kings of Banquo's fated line In scenes like these, which, daring to depart From sober truth, are still to nature true, Th' heroic Muse employ'd her Tasso's art! 180 190 1 Solan: the solan geese breed in the face of the cliffs; their eggs are the principal source of subsistence to the inhabitants of St Kilda. How have I trembled, when, at Tancred's stroke, 193 Its gushing blood the gaping cypress pour'd! When each live plant with mortal accents spoke, And the wild blast upheaved the vanish'd sword! How have I sat, when piped the pensive wind, To hear his harp by British Fairfax strung! Prevailing poet! whose undoubting mind Believed the magic wonders which he sung! Hence, at each sound, imagination glows! Hence, at each picture, vivid life starts here! 200 Hence his warm lay with softest sweetness flows! Melting it flows, pure, murmuring, strong, and clear, And fills th' impassion'd heart, and wins th' harmonious ear! All hail, ye scenes that o'er my soul prevail ! Or o'er your mountains creep, in awful gloom! And mourn, on Yarrow's banks, where Willy's laid! To him I lose, your kind protection lend, 210 220 And, touch'd with love like mine, preserve my absent friend! Annan, Tay,' 'Don:' three rivers in Scotland. - Jonson: ' Ben Jonson paid a visit on foot, in 1619, to the Scotch poet Drummond, at his seat of Hawthornden, within four miles of Edinburgh. Lothian's plains: Barrow, it seems, was at the Edinburgh University, which is in the county of Lothian. :' MISCELLANEOUS PIECES. AN EPISTLE, ADDRESSED TO SIR THOMAS HANMER, ON HIS EDITION OF SHAKSPEARE'S WORKS. SIR, WHILE, born to bring the Muse's happier days, While, nursed by you, she sees her myrtles bloom, 10 |