No more by the banks of the streamlet we 'll wander, [wave; And smile at the moon's rimpled face in the No more shall my arms cling with fondness around her [grave. For the dew-drops of morning fall cold on her No more shall the soft thrill of love warm my breast, I haste with the storm to a far distant shore; Where, unknown, unlamented, my ashes shall rest, And joy shall revisit my bosom no more. LAMENT, FOR JAMES, EARL OF GLENCAIRN. THE wind blew hollow fraez the hills, Laden with years and meiklea pain, In loud lament bewail'd his lord, Whom death had all untimely taen.b He lean'd him to an ancient aik,c Whose trunk was mould'ring down with years; His locks were bleached white wi' time, 'Ye scatter'd birds that faintly sing, z From a Much. b Taken. c Oak. H A few short months, and glad and gay, I am a bending aged tree, That long has stood the wind and rain But now has come a cruel blast, And my last halde of earth is gane. Nae leaf o' mine shall greet the spring, Nae simmer sun exalt my bloom; But I maun lie before the storm, And ithers plant them in my room. 'I 've seen sae monie changefu' years, On earth I am a stranger grown; I wander in the ways of men, Alike unknowing and unknown: Unheard, unpitied, unreliev'd, I bear alane my lade o' care, For silent, low, on beds of dust, Lie a' that would my sorrows share. And last (the sum of a' my griefs !) My noble master lies in clay; The flow'r amang our barons bold, His country's pride, his country's stay: weary being now I pine, In For a' the life of life is dead, Awake thy last sad voice, my harp! Accept this tribute from the Bard Thou brought from Fortune's mirkest gloom. In poverty's low barren vale, Thick mists, obscure, involv'd me round; Tho' oft I turn'd the wistful eye, Nae ray of fame was to be found: A day to me so full of woe! That smiles sae sweetly on her knee; LINES Sent to Sir John Whitefoord, of Whitefoord, Bart., THOU, who thy honour as thy God rever'st, Who, save thy mind's reproach, nought earthly [fear'st, The friend thou valued'st, I the patron lov'd; Darkest. See Note, page 126. We'll mourn till we too go as he has gone, And tread the dreary path to that dark world unknown. LAMENT OF MARY, QUEEN OF SCOTS, Now Nature hangs her mantle green And spreads her sheets o' daisies white Now Phoebus cheers the crystal streams, But nocht can glad the weary wight Now lav'rocks wake the merry morn, The merle,h in his noontide bow'r, Now blooms the lily by the bank, I was the Queen o' bonnie France, The Blackbird. Strong. i The Thrush. & Must. m Full. And I'm the Sov'reign of Scotland, And monie a traitor there: Yet here I lie in foreign bands, And never-ending care. But as for thee, thou false woman, My sister and my fae, Grim Vengeance, yet, shall whet a sword The weeping blood in woman's breast Nor th' balm that drops on wounds of woe Frae woman's pitying e'e. My son! my son! may kinder stars And may those pleasures gild thy reign, God keep thee frae thy mother's faes, Or turn their hearts to thee; And where thou meet'st thy mother's friend, Remember him for me! Oh! soon, to me, may summer-suns Nae mair light up the morn! Nae mair, to me, the autumn winds Wave o'er the yellow corn! And in the narrow house o' death Let winter round me rave; And the next flow'rs that deck the spring, Bloom on my peaceful grave! Would shine. No more. |