• From “The Lady of the Lake,” Canto II.
      LOUD a hundred clansmen raise
      Their voices in their chieftain’s praise.
      Each boatman, bending to his oar,
      With measured sweep the burthen bore,
      In such wild cadence, as the breeze
      Makes through December’s leafless trees.
      The chorus first could Allen know,
      “Roderigh Vich Alpine...

  • [1411]
    From “The Lady of the Lake,” Canto VI.
    THERE is no breeze upon the fern,
      No ripple on the lake,
    Upon her eyrie nods the erne,
      The deer has sought the brake;
    The small birds will not sing aloud,
      The springing trout lies still,
    So darkly glooms yon thunder-cloud,
    That swathes, as with a purple shroud,
      ...

  • [1431]
    pibroch of Donuil Dhu, 1
      Pibroch of Donuil,
    Wake thy wild voice anew,
      Summon Clan Conuil.
    Come away, come away,
      Hark to the summons!
    Come in your war array,
      Gentles and commons.

    Come from deep glen, and
      From mountains so rocky;
    The war-pipe and pennon
      Are at Inverlochy.
    ...

  • [September, 1513]
    From “Marmion,” Canto VI.
    A MOMENT then Lord Marmion stayed,
    And breathed his steed, his men arrayed,
      Then forward moved his band,
    Until, Lord Surrey’s rear-guard won,
    He halted by a cross of stone,
    That, on a hillock standing lone,
      Did all the field command.

    Hence might they see the full array...

  • [About 1688]
    to the lords of convention ’t was Claverhouse spoke,
    “Ere the king’s crown shall fall, there are crowns to be broke;
    So let each cavalier who loves honor and me
    Come follow the bonnets of bonnie Dundee!”

    Come fill up my cup, come fill up my can;
    Come saddle your horses, and call up your men;
    Come open the Westport and let us...

  • [1775]
    in a chariot of light from the regions of day,
      The Goddess of Liberty came;
    Ten thousand celestials directed the way,
      And hither conducted the dame.
    A fair budding branch from the gardens above,
      Where millions with millions agree,
    She brought in her hand as a pledge of her love,
      And the plant she named Liberty Tree...

  • Where is the grave of Sir Arthur O’Kellyn?
    Where may the grave of that good man be?—
    By the side of a spring, on the breast of Helvellyn,
    Under the twigs of a young birch-tree!
    The oak that in summer was sweet to hear,
    And rustled its leaves in the fall of the year,
    And whistled and roared in the winter alone,
    Is gone,—and the birch in...

  •    [In Bavaria, August 13, 1704, between the English and Austrians on one side, under the Duke of Marlborough and Prince Eugene, and the French and Bavarians on the other side, led by Marshal Tallart and the Elector of Bavaria. The latter party was defeated, and the schemes of Louis XIV. of France were materially checked.]

    IT was a summer evening,—
      Old Kaspar’s work was done...

  • How sleep the brave who sink to rest
    By all their country’s wishes blest!
    When Spring, with dewy fingers cold,
    Returns to deck their hallowed mold,
    She there shall dress a sweeter sod
    Than Fancy’s feet have ever trod.

    By fairy hands their knell is rung
    By forms unseen their dirge is sung;
    There Honor comes, a pilgrim gray,...

  •   IF thou shouldst ever come by choice or chance
    To Modena, where still religiously
    Among her ancient trophies is preserved
    Bologna’s bucket (in its chain it hangs
    Within that reverend tower, the Guirlandina),
    Stop at a palace near the Reggio gate,
    Dwelt in of old by one of the Orsini.
    Its noble gardens, terrace above terrace,
    And...