MERRILY Swim we, the moon shines bright,
Both current and ripple are dancing in light.
We have roused the night raven, I heard him croak,
As we plashed along beneath the oak

That flings its broad branches so far and so wide,
Their shadows are dancing in midst of the tide.
"Who wakens my nestlings?" the raven he said,
'My beak shall ere morn in his blood be red!

For a blue swollen corpse is a dainty meal,

And I'll have my share with the pike and the eel.”

2.

Merrily swim we, the moon shines bright,

There's a golden gleam on the distant height:
There's a silver shower on the alders dank,

And the drooping willows that wave on the bank.
I see the Abbey, both turret and tower,

It is all astir for the vesper hour;

The monks for the chapel are leaving each cell,
But where's Father Philip should toll the bell?

3.

Merrily swim we, the moon shines bright,
Downward we drift through shadow and light,
Under yon rock the eddies sleep,

Calm and silent, dark and deep.

The Kelpy has risen from the fathomless pool,
He has lighted his candle of death and of dool:
Look, Father, look, and you'll laugh to see
How he gapes and glares with his eyes on thee!

4.

Good luck to your fishing, whom watch ye to-night?
A man of mean or a man of might?

Is it layman or priest that must float in your cove,
Or lover who crosses to visit his love?

Hark! heard ye the Kelpy reply as we pass'd,"God's blessing on the warder, he lock'd the bridge fast! All that come to my cove are sunk,

Priest or layman, lover or monk."

Landed-landed! the black book hath won,
Else had you seen Berwick with morning sun!
Sain ye, and save ye, and blithe mot ye be,
For seldom they land that go swimming with me.

TO THE SUB-PRIOR.

GOOD evening, Sir Priest, and so late as you ride,
With your mule so fair, and your mantle so wide;
But ride you through valley, or ride you o'er hill,
There is one that has warrant to wait on you still.
Back, back,

The volume black!

I have a warrant to carry it back.

What, ho! Sub-Prior, and came you but here
To conjure a book from a dead woman's bier?
Sain you, and save you, be wary and wise,

Ride back with the book, or you'll pay for your prize.
Back, back,

There's death in the track!

In the name of my master, I bid thee bear back.

That which is neither ill nor well,

That which belongs not to heaven nor to hell,
A wreath of the mist, a bubble of the stream,
'Twixt a waking thought and a sleeping dream;
A form that men spy

With the half-shut eye

In the beams of the setting sun, am I.

Vainly, Sir Prior, wouldst thou bar me my right!
Like the star when it shoots, I can dart through the night;
I can dance on the torrent, and ride on the air,
And travel the world with the bonny night-mare.

Again, again,

At the crook of the glen,

Where bickers the burnie, I'll meet thee again.

Men of good are bold as sackless,
Men of rude are wild and reckless.
Lie thou still

In the nook of the hill,

For those be before thee that wish thee il

BORDER BALLAD.

I.

MARCH, march, Ettrick and Teviotdale,

Why the deil dinna ye march forward in order?
March, march, Eskdale and Liddesdale,

All the Blue Bonnets are bound for 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 the mountain glen,

Fight for the Queen and our old Scottish glory.

2.

Come from the hills where your hirsels are grazing,
Come from the glen of the buck and the roe;
Come to the crag where the beacon is blazing,
Come with the buckler, the lance, and the bow.
Trumpets are sounding,
War-steeds are bounding,

Stand to your arms, and march in good order,
England shall many a day

Tell of the bloody fray,

When the Blue Bonnets came over the Border.

From the Pirate.

[1821.]

CLAUD HALCRO'S SONG.

FAREWELL to Northmaven,
Grey Hillswicke, farewell!
To the calms of thy haven,

The storms on thy fell-
To each breeze that can vary
The mood of thy main,
And to thee, bonny Mary!
We meet not again!

Farewell the wild ferry,

Which Hacon could brave,
When the peaks of the Skerry

Were white in the wave.
There's a maid may look over
These wild waves in vain,-
For the skiff of her lover-
He comes not again!

The vows thou hast broke,

On the wild currents fling them; On the quicksand and rock

Let the mermaidens sing them :

New sweetness they'll give her

Bewildering strain ;

But there's one who will never
Believe them again.

O were there an island,
Though ever so wild,
Where woman could smile, and
No man be beguiled-
Too tempting a snare

To poor mortals were given;
And the hope would fix there,
That should anchor in heaven.

SONG OF

HAROLD HARFAGER.

THE sun is rising dimly red,
The wind is wailing low and dread;
From his cliff the eagle sallies,
Leaves the wolf his darksome valleys;
In the mist the ravens hover,
Peep the wild dogs from the cover,
Screaming, croaking, baying, yelling,
Each in his wild accents telling,
"Soon we feast on dead and dying,
Fair-hair'd Harold's flag is flying.

Many a crest on air is streaming,
Many a helmet darkly gleaming,
Many an arm the axe uprears,
Doom'd to hew the wood of spears.
All along the crowded ranks
Horses neigh and armour clanks;
Chiefs are shouting, clarions ringing,
Louder still the bard is singing,
"Gather footmen, gather horsemen,
To the field, ye valiant Norsemen !

"Halt ye not for food or slumber,
View not vantage, count not number:
Jolly reapers, forward still,
Grow the crop on vale or hill,
Thick or scatter'd, stiff or lithe,
It shall down before the scythe.

Forward with your sickles bright,
Reap the harvest of the fight. --
Onward footmen, onward horsemen,
To the charge ye gallant Norsemen !
"Fatal Choosers of the Slaughter,
O'er you hovers Odin's daughter;
Hear the choice she spreads before ye,―
Victory, and wealth, and glory;
Or old Valhalla's roaring hail,
Her ever-circling mead and ale,
Where for eternity unite

The joys of wassail and of fight.
Headlong forward, foot and horsemen,
Charge and fight, and die like Norse-
men!"

SONG OF THE ZETLAND FISHERMAN.

FAREWELL, merry maidens, to song, and to laugh,
For the brave lads of Westra are bound to the Haaf;
And we must have labour, and hunger, and pain,
Ere we dance with the maids of Dunrossness again.
For now, in our trim boats of Noroway deal,
We must dance on the waves, with the porpoise and seal
The breeze it shall pipe, so it pipe not too high,
And the gull be our songstress whene'er she flits by.
Sing on, my brave bird, while we follow, like thee,
By bank, shoal, and quicksand, the swarms of the sea;
And when twenty-score fishes are straining our line,
Sing louder, brave bird, for their spoils shall be thine.
We'll sing while we bait, and we'll sing while we haul,
For the deeps of the Haaf have enough for us all :
There is torsk for the gentle, and skate for the carle,
And there's wealth for bold Magnus, the son of the earl.
Huzza! my brave comrades, give way for the Haaf,
We shall sooner come back to the dance and the laugh ;
For light without mirth is a lamp without oil;
Then, mirth and long life to the bold Magnus Troil!

;

CLEVELAND'S SONGS.

I.

LOVE wakes and weeps
While Beauty sleeps!

O for Music's softest numbers,

To prompt a theme,

For Beauty's dream,

Soft as the pillow of her slumbers!

2.

Through groves of palm
Sigh gales of balm,

Fire-flies on the air are wheeling;

While through the gloom

Comes soft perfume,

The distant beds of flowers revealing.