From “The Lay of the Last Minstrel,” Canto VI.
O CALEDONIA! stern and wild,
Meet nurse for a poetic child!
Land of brown heath and shaggy wood,
Land of the mountain and the flood,
Land of my sires! what mortal hand
Can e’er untie the filial band
That knits me to thy rugged strand?
Still, as I view each well-known scene,
...
A Pindaric Ode
I.
“RUIN seize thee, ruthless King!
Confusion on thy banners wait;
Tho’ fanned by Conquest’s crimson wing,
They mock the air with idle state,
Helm, nor hauberk’s twisted mail,
Nor e’en thy virtues, Tyrant, shall avail
To save thy secret soul from nightly fears,
From Cambria’s curse, from Cambria’s...
My heart ’s in the Highlands, my heart is not here;
My heart ’s in the Highlands a-chasing the deer;
Chasing the wild deer, and following the roe.
My heart ’s in the Highlands, wherever I go.
Farewell to the Highlands, farewell to the North,
The birthplace of valor, the country of worth;
Wherever I wander, wherever I rove,
The hills of...
From the bonny bells of heather
They brewed a drink long-syne,
Was sweeter far than honey,
Was stronger far than wine.
They brewed it and they drank it,
And lay in a blessèd swound
For days and days together
In the dwellings underground.
There rose a king in Scotland,
A fell man to his foes,
He smote...
[James Graham, Marquis of Montrose, was executed in Edinburgh, May 21, 1650, for an attempt to overthrow the Commonwealth and restore Charles II.]
COME hither, Evan Cameron!
Come, stand behind my knee—
I hear the river roaring down
Toward the wintry sea.
There ’s shouting on the mountain-side,
There ’s war within the blast—
Old...
March, march, Ettrick and Teviotdale!
Why the de’il dinna ye march forward in order?
March, march, Eskdale and Liddesdale!
All the Blue Bonnets are over the Border!
Many a banner spread
Flutters above your head,
Many a crest that is famous in story!—
Mount and make ready, then,
Sons of...
Oh! why left I my hame?
Why did I cross the deep?
Oh! why left I the land
Where my forefathers sleep?
I sigh for Scotia’s shore,
And I gaze across the sea,
But I canna get a blink
O’ my ain countrie.
The palm-tree waveth high,
And fair the myrtle springs;
And, to the Indian maid,
The bulbul...
The Savage loves his native shore,
Though rude the soil and chill the air;
Then well may Erin’s sons adore
Their isle which nature formed so fair,
What flood reflects a shore so sweet
As Shannon great or pastoral Bann?
Or who a friend or foe can meet
So generous as an Irishman?
His hand is rash, his heart is warm,...
A health to you, Piper,
And your pipes silver-tongued, clear and sweet in their crooning!
Full of the music they gathered at morn
On your high heather hills from the lark on the wing,
From the blackbird at eve on the blossoming thorn,
From the little green linnet whose plaining they sing,
And the joy and the hope in the heart of the...
MY love to fight the Saxon goes,
And bravely shines his sword of steel;
A heron’s feather decks his brows,
And a spur on either heel;
His steed is blacker than the sloe,
And fleeter than the falling star;
Amid the surging ranks he ’ll go
And shout for joy of war.
Twinkle, twinkle, pretty...
