It appears from the Life of Scott, vol. i. p. 333, that these lines, first published in the English Minstrelsy, 1810, were written in 1797, on occasion of the Poet's disappointment in love. THE violet in her greenwood bower, Where birchen boughs with hazels mingle, May boast itself the fairest flower Though fair her gems of azure hue, Beneath the dew-drop's weight reclining; I've seen an eye of lovelier blue, More sweet through wat'ry lustre shining. The summer sun that dew shall dry, Ere yet the day be past its morrow; Nor longer in my false love's eye Remain'd the tear of parting sorrow. TO A LADY.. WITH FLOWERS FROM A ROMAN WALL. [1797.] Written in 1797, on an excursion from Gillsland, in Cumberland. See Life, vol. i. p. 365. WRITTEN UNDER THE THREAT OF INVASION IN THE AUTUMN OF 1804. There is a voice among the trees, There is a voice within the wood, "Wake ye from your sleep of death, The Spectre with his Bloody Hand, Is wandering through the wild woodland; The owl and the raven are mute for dread, And the time is meet to awake the dead! "Souls of the mighty, wake and say, Her Norsemen train'd to spoil and Skill'd to prepare the Raven's food, "Mute are ye all? Nomurmurs strange Nor through the pines, with whistling change Mimic the harp's wild harmony! Mute are ye now?-Ye ne'er were mute, When Murder with his bloody foot, "O yet awake the strain to tell, By every deed in song enroll'd, For Albion's weal in battle bold :— From Coilgach, first who roll'd his car Through the deep ranks of Roman war, To him, of veteran memory dear, Who victor died on Aboukir. "By all their swords, by all their scars, By all their names, a mighty spell! By all their wounds, by all their wars, Arise, the mighty strain to tell! For fiercer than fierce Hengist's strain, More impious than the heathen Dane, More grasping than all-grasping Rome, Gaul's ravening legions hither come!" The wind is hush'd, and still the lake Strange murmurs fill my tinkling ears, Bristles my hair, my sinews quake, At the dread voice of other years— "When targets clash'd, and bugles HELLVELLYN. In the spring of 1805, a young gentleman of talents, and of a most amiable disposition, perished by losing his way on the mountain Hellvellyn. His remains were not discovered till three months afterwards, when they were found guarded by a faithful terrier-bitch, his constant attendant during frequent solitary rambles through the wilds of Cumberland and Westmoreland. I CLIMB'D the dark brow of the mighty Hellvellyn, Lakes and mountains beneath me gleam'd misty and wide; On the right, Striden-edge round the Red-tarn was bending, One huge nameless rock in the front was ascending, When I mark'd the sad spot where the wanderer had died. Dark green was that spot 'mid the brown mountain heather, How long didst thou think that his silence was slumber? And pages stand mute by the canopied pall: Through the courts, at deep midnight, the torches are gleaming. But meeter for thee, gentle lover of nature, To lay down thy head like the meek mountain lamb, And more stately thy couch by this desert lake lying, In the arms of Hellvellyn and Catchedicam. THE DYING BARD. [1806.] AIR-Daffydz Gangwen. The Welsh tradition bears, that a Bard, on his death-bed, demanded his harp, and played the air to which these verses are adapted; requesting that it might be performed at his funeral. I. DINAS EMLINN, lament; for the moment is nigh, II. In spring and in autumn thy glories of shade 4 III. Thy sons, Dinas Emlinn, may march in their pride, IV. And oh, Dinas Emlinn! thy daughters so fair, V. Then adieu, silver Teivi! I quit thy loved scene, VI. And adieu, Dinas Emlinn! still green be thy shades, THE NORMAN HORSE-SHOE. [1806.] AIR-The War-Song of the Men of Glamorgan. The Welsh, inhabiting a mountainous country, and possessing only an inferior breed of horses, were usually unable to encounter the shock of the Anglo-Norman cavalry. Occasionally, however, they were successful in repelling the invaders; and the following verses are supposed to celebrate a defeat of CLARE, Earl of Striguil and Pembroke, and of NEVILLE, Baron of Chepstow, Lords-Marchers of Monmouthshire. Rymny is a stream which divides the counties of Monmouth and Glamorgan: Caerphili, the scene of the supposed battle, is a vale upon its banks, dignified by the ruins of a very ancient castle. THE MAID OF TORO. O, LOW shone the sun on the fair lake of Toro, And weak were the whispers that waved the dark wood, Sorely sigh'd to the breezes, and wept to the flood. All distant and faint were the sounds of the battle, With the breezes they rise, with the breezes they fail, "O, save thee, fair maid, for our armies are flying! And scarce could she hear them, benumb'd with despair: |