by Homer
Dream of fighting fields no more;
Sleep the sleep that knows not breaking,
Morn of toil, nor night of waking.
‘No rude sound shall reach thine ear,
Armor’s clang or war-steed champing
Trump nor pibroch summon here
Mustering clan or squadron tramping.
Yet the lark’s shrill fife may come
At the daybreak from the fallow,
And the bittern sound his drum
Booming from the sedgy shallow.
Ruder sounds shall none be near,
Guards nor warders challenge here,
Here’s no war-steed’s neigh and champing,
Shouting clans or squadrons stamping.’
XXXII.
She paused, — then, blushing, led the lay,
To grace the stranger of the day.
Her mellow notes awhile prolong
The cadence of the flowing song,
Till to her lips in measured frame
The minstrel verse spontaneous came.
Song Continued.
‘Huntsman, rest! thy chase is done;
While our slumbrous spells assail ye,
Dream not, with the rising sun,
Bugles here shall sound reveille.
Sleep! the deer is in his den;
Sleep! thy hounds are by thee lying;
Sleep! nor dream in yonder glen
How thy gallant steed lay dying.
Huntsman, rest! thy chase is done;
Think not of the rising sun,
For at dawning to assail ye
Here no bugles sound reveille.’
XXXIII.
The hall was cleared, — the stranger’s bed,
Was there of mountain heather spread,
Where oft a hundred guests had lain,
And dreamed their forest sports again.
But vainly did the heath-flower shed
Its moorland fragrance round his head;
Not Ellen’s spell had lulled to rest
The fever of his troubled breast.
In broken dreams the image rose
Of varied perils, pains, and woes:
His steed now flounders in the brake,
Now sinks his barge upon the lake;
Now leader of a broken host,
His standard falls, his honor’s lost.
Then, — from my couch may heavenly might
Chase that worst phantom of the night! —
Again returned the scenes of youth,
Of confident, undoubting truth;
Again his soul he interchanged
With friends whose hearts were long estranged.
They come, in dim procession led,
The cold, the faithless, and the dead;
As warm each hand, each brow as gay,
As if they parted yesterday.
And doubt distracts him at the view, —
O were his senses false or true?
Dreamed he of death or broken vow,
Or is it all a vision now?
XXXIV.
At length, with Ellen in a grove
He seemed to walk and speak of love;
She listened with a blush and sigh,
His suit was warm, his hopes were high.
He sought her yielded hand to clasp,
And a cold gauntlet met his grasp:
The phantom’s sex was changed and gone,
Upon its head a helmet shone;
Slowly enlarged to giant size,
With darkened cheek and threatening eyes,
The grisly visage, stern and hoar,
To Ellen still a likeness bore. —
He woke, and, panting with affright,
Recalled the vision of the night.
The hearth’s decaying brands were red
And deep and dusky lustre shed,
Half showing, half concealing, all
The uncouth trophies of the hall.
Mid those the stranger fixed his eye
Where that huge falchion hung on high,
And thoughts on thoughts, a countless throng,
Rushed, chasing countless thoughts along,
Until, the giddy whirl to cure,
He rose and sought the moonshine pure.
XXXV.
The wild rose, eglantine, and broom
Wasted around their rich perfume;
The birch-trees wept in fragrant balm;
The aspens slept beneath the calm;
The silver light, with quivering glance,
Played on the water’s still expanse, —
Wild were the heart whose passion’s sway
Could rage beneath the sober ray!
He felt its calm, that warrior guest,
While thus he communed with his breast: —
‘Why is it, at each turn I trace
Some memory of that exiled race?
Can I not mountain maiden spy,
But she must bear the Douglas eye?
Can I not view a Highland brand,
But it must match the Douglas hand?
Can I not frame a fevered dream,
But still the Douglas is the theme?
I’ll dream no more, — by manly mind
Not even in sleep is will resigned.
My midnight orisons said o’er,
I’ll turn to rest, and dream no more.’
His midnight orisons he told,
A prayer with every bead of gold,
Consigned to heaven his cares and woes,
And sunk in undisturbed repose,
Until the heath-cock shrilly crew,
And morning dawned on Benvenue.
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
The Outlaw
Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832)
O BRIGNALL banks are wild and fair,
And Greta woods are green,
And you may gather garlands there
Would grace a summer-queen.
And as I rode by Dalton-Hall 5
Beneath the turrets high,
A Maiden on the castle-wall
Was singing merrily:
‘O Brignall Banks are fresh and fair,
And Greta woods are green; 10
I’d rather rove with Edmund there
Than reign our English queen.’
‘If, Maiden, thou wouldst wend with me,
To leave both tower and town,
Thou first must guess what life lead we 15
That dwell by dale and down.
And if thou canst that riddle read,
As read full well you may,
Then to the greenwood shalt thou speed
As blithe as Queen of May.’ 20
Yet sung she, ‘Brignall banks are fair,
And Greta woods are green;
I’d rather rove with Edmund there
Than reign our English queen.
‘I read you, by your bugle-horn 25
And by your palfrey good,
I read you for a ranger sworn
To keep the king’s greenwood.’
‘A Ranger, lady, winds his horn,
And ’tis at peep of light; 30
His blast is heard at merry morn,
And mine at dead of night.’
Yet sung she, ‘Brignall banks are fair,
And Greta woods are gay;
I would I were with Edmund there 35
To reign his Queen of May!
‘With burnish’d brand and musketoon
So gallantly you come,
I read you for a bold Dragoon
That lists the tuck of drum.’ 40
‘I list no more the tuck of drum,
No more the trumpet near;
But when the beetle sounds his hum
My comrades take the spear.
And O! though Brignall banks be fair 45
And Greta woods be gay,
Yet mickle must the maiden dare
Would
reign my Queen of May!
‘Maiden! a nameless life I lead,
A nameless death I’ll die; 50
The fiend whose lantern lights the mead
Were better mate than I!
And when I’m with my comrades met
Beneath the greenwood bough, —
What once we were we all forget, 55
Nor think what we are now.’
Chorus
‘Yet Brignall banks are fresh and fair,
And Greta woods are green,
And you may gather garlands there
Would grace a summer-queen.’ 60
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
To a Lock of Hair
Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832)
THY hue, dear pledge, is pure and bright
As in that well-remember’d night
When first thy mystic braid was wove,
And first my Agnes whisper’d love.
Since then how often hast thou prest 5
The torrid zone of this wild breast,
Whose wrath and hate have sworn to dwell
With the first sin that peopled hell;
A breast whose blood’s a troubled ocean,
Each throb the earthquake’s wild commotion! 10
O if such clime thou canst endure
Yet keep thy hue unstain’d and pure,
What conquest o’er each erring thought
Of that fierce realm had Agnes wrought!
I had not wander’d far and wide 15
With such an angel for my guide;
Nor heaven nor earth could then reprove me
If she had lived and lived to love me.
Not then this world’s wild joys had been
To me one savage hunting scene, 20
My sole delight the headlong race
And frantic hurry of the chase;
To start, pursue, and bring to bay,
Rush in, drag down, and rend my prey,
Then — from the carcass turn away! 25
Mine ireful mood had sweetness tamed,
And soothed each wound which pride inflamed: —
Yes, God and man might now approve me
If thou hadst lived and lived to love me!
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Jock of Hazeldean
Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832)
‘WHY weep ye by the tide, ladie?
Why weep ye by the tide?
I’ll wed ye to my youngest son,
And ye sall be his bride:
And ye sall be his bride, ladie, 5
Sae comely to be seen’ —
But aye she loot the tears down fa’
For Jock of Hazeldean.
‘Now let this wilfu’ grief be done,
And dry that cheek so pale; 10
Young Frank is chief of Errington
And lord of Langley-dale;
His step is first in peaceful ha’,
His sword in battle keen’ —
But aye she loot the tears down fa’ 15
For Jock of Hazeldean.
‘A chain of gold ye sall not lack,
Nor braid to bind your hair,
Nor mettled hound, nor managed hawk,
Nor palfrey fresh and fair; 20
And you the foremost o’ them a’
Shall ride our forest-queen’ —
But aye she loot the tears down fa’
For Jock of Hazeldean.
The kirk was deck’d at morning-tide, 25
The tapers glimmer’d fair;
The priest and bridegroom wait the bride,
And dame and knight are there:
They sought her baith by bower and ha’
The ladie was not seen! 30
She’s o’er the Border, and awa’
Wi’ Jock of Hazeldean.
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Eleu Loro
Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832)
WHERE shall the lover rest
Whom the fates sever
From his true maiden’s breast
Parted for ever?
Where, through groves deep and high 5
Sounds the far billow,
Where early violets die
Under the willow.
Eleu loro
Soft shall be his pillow. 10
There through the summer day
Cool streams are laving:
There, while the tempests sway,
Scarce are boughs waving;
There thy rest shalt thou take, 15
Parted for ever,
Never again to wake
Never, O never!
Eleu loro
Never, O never! 20
Where shall the traitor rest,
He, the deceiver,
Who could win maiden’s breast,
Ruin, and leave her?
In the lost battle, 25
Borne down by the flying,
Where mingles war’s rattle
With groans of the dying;
Eleu loro
There shall he be lying. 30
Her wing shall the eagle flap
O’er the falsehearted;
His warm blood the wolf shall lap
Ere life be parted.
Shame and dishonour sit 35
By his grave ever;
Blessing shall hallow it
Never, O never!
Eleu loro
Never, O never! 40
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
A Serenade
Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832)
AH! County Guy, the hour is nigh
The sun has left the lea,
The orange-flower perfumes the bower,
The breeze is on the sea.
The lark, his lay who trill’d all day, 5
Sits hush’d his partner nigh;
Breeze, bird, and flower confess the hour,
But where is County Guy?
The village maid steals through the shade
Her shepherd’s suit to hear; 10
To Beauty shy, by lattice high,
Sings high-born Cavalier.
The star of Love, all stars above,
Now reigns o’er earth and sky,
And high and low the influence know — 15
But where is County Guy?
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
The Rover
Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832)
A WEARY lot is thine, fair maid,
A weary lot is thine!
To pull the thorn thy brow to braid,
And press the rue for wine.
A lightsome eye, a soldier’s mien 5
A feather of the blue,
A doublet of the Lincoln green —
No more of me you knew
My Love!
No more of me you knew. 10
‘This morn is merry June, I trow,
The rose is budding fain;
But she shall bloom in winter snow
Ere we two meet again.’
He turn’d his charger as he spake 15
Upon the river shore,
He gave the bridle-reins a shake,
Said ‘Adieu for evermore
My Love!
And adieu for evermore.’ 20
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
The Maid of Neidpath
Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832)
O LOVERS’ eyes are sharp to see,
And lovers’ ears in hearing;
And love, in life’s extremity,
Can lend an hour of cheering.
Disease had been in Mary’s bower 5
And slow decay from mourning,
Though now she
sits on Neidpath’s tower
To watch her Love’s returning.
All sunk and dim her eyes so bright,
Her form decay’d by pining, 10
Till through her wasted hand, at night,
You saw the taper shining.
By fits a sultry hectic hue
Across her cheek was flying;
By fits so ashy pale she grew 15
Her maidens thought her dying.
Yet keenest powers to see and hear
Seem’d in her frame residing;
Before the watch-dog prick’d his ear
She heard her lover’s riding; 20
Ere scarce a distant form was kenn’d
She knew and waved to greet him,
And o’er the battlement did bend
As on the wing to meet him.
He came — he pass’d — an heedless gaze 25
As o’er some stranger glancing:
Her welcome, spoke in faltering phrase,
Lost in his courser’s prancing —
The castle-arch, whose hollow tone
Returns each whisper spoken, 30
Could scarcely catch the feeble moan
Which told her heart was broken.
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Gathering Song of Donald the Black
Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832)
PIBROCH of Donuil Dhu
Pibroch of Donuil
Wake thy wild voice anew,
Summon Clan Conuil!
Come away, come away, 5
Hark to the summons!
Come in your war-array,
Gentles and commons.
Come from deep glen, and
From mountain so rocky; 10
The war-pipe and pennon
Are at Inverlocky.
Come every hill-plaid, and
True heart that wears one,
Come every steel blade, and 15
Strong hand that bears one.