O blest are the hearers, and proud be the hand
Of the pleasure it spreads through so thankful a band; I am glad for him, blind as he is!-all the while
If they speak 'tis to praise, and they praise with a smile.
That tall man, a giant in bulk and in height, Not an inch of his body is free from delight; Can he keep himself still, if he would? oh, not he! The music stirs in him like wind through a tree.
There's a cripple who leans on his crutch; like a tower That long has leaned forward, leans hour after hour!— A mother, whose spirit in fetters is bound,
While she dandles the babe in her arms to the sound.
Now, coaches and chariots! roar on like a stream; Here are twenty souls happy as souls in a dream : They are deaf to your murmurs-they care not for you, Nor what ye are flying, nor what ye pursue.*
While my fellow-traveller and I were walking by the side of Loch Katrine, one fine evening after sunset, in our road to a hut where in the course of our tour we had been hospitably entertained some weeks before, we met, in one of the loneliest parts of that solitary region, two welldressed women, one of whom said to us, by way of greeting, "What, you are stepping westward?"
"What, you are stepping westward?"—" Yea." -'Twould be a wildish destiny,
If we, who thus together roam
In a strange land, and far from home, Were in this place the guests of chance; Yet who would stop, or fear t' advance, Though home or shelter he had none, With such a sky to lead him on ?
The dewy ground was dark and cold; Behind, all gloomy to behold; And stepping westward seemed to be A kind of heavenly destiny: I liked the greeting; 'twas a sound Of something without place or bound; And seemed to give me spiritual right To travel through that region bright.
The voice was soft, and she who spake Was walking by her native lake; The salutation had to me
The very sound of courtesy;
Its power was felt; and while my eye Was fixed upon the glowing sky,
The echo of the voice enwrought A human sweetness with the thought Of travelling through the world that lay Before me in my endless way.
GLEN-ALMAIN; OR, THE NARROW GLEN. In this still place, remote from men, Sleeps Ossian, in the "Narrow Glen;" In this still place, where murmurs on But one meek streamlet, only one: He sang of battles, and the breath Of stormy war and violent death; And should, methinks, when all was past, Have rightfully been laid at last
Where rocks were rudely heaped, and rent As by a spirit turbulent;
Where sights were rough, and sounds were wild,
And everything unreconciled;
In some complaining, dim retreat,
For fear and melancholy meet;
But this is calm; there cannot be
A more entire tranquillity.
Does then the bard sleep here indeed ?
Or is it but a groundless creed?
What matters it ?- I blame them not Whose fancy in this lonely spot
Was moved; and in this way expressed Their notion of its perfect rest. A convent, even a hermit's cell Would break the silence of this dell: It is not quiet, is not ease;
But something deeper far than these: The separation that is here Is of the grave; and of austere And happy feelings of the dead: And, therefore, was it rightly said That Ossian, last of all his race! Lies buried in this lonely place.
TO A HIGHLAND GIRL.
(AT INVERSNAID UPON LOCH LOMOND). SWEET Highland Girl, a very shower Of beauty is thy earthly dower ! Twice seven consenting years have shed Their utmost bounty on thy head;
And these grey rocks; this household lawn; These trees, a veil just half withdrawn;
This fall of water, that doth make
A murmur near the silent lake; This little bay, a quiet road, That holds in shelter thy abode; In truth together ye do seem Like something fashioned in a dream; Such forms as from their covert peep When earthly cares are laid asleep! Yet, dream and vision as thou art, I bless thee with a human heart! God shield thee to thy latest years! I neither know thee nor thy peers; And yet my eyes are filled with tears.
With earnest feeling I shall pray For thee when I am far away: For never saw I mien, or face, In which more plainly I could trace Benignity and home-bred sense Ripening in perfect innocence. Here, scattered like a random seed, Remote from men, thou dost not need The embarrassed look of shy distress, And maidenly shamefacedness; Thou wear'st upon thy forehead clear The freedom of a mountaineer, A face with gladness overspread! Sweet looks, by human kindness bred! And seemliness complete, that sways Thy courtesies, about thee plays; With no restraint, but such as springs From quick and eager visitings Of thoughts, that lie beyond the reach Of thy few words of English speech; A bondage sweetly brooked, a strife That gives thy gestures grace and life! So have I, not unmoved in mind, Seen birds of tempest loving-kind, Thus beating up against the wind.
What hand but would a garland cull For thee, who art so beautiful? O happy pleasure! here to dwell Beside thee in some heathy dell; Adopt your homely ways and dress, A shepherd, thou a shepherdess ! But I could frame a wish for thee More like a grave reality: Thou art to me but as a wave Of the wild sea; and I would have Some claim upon thee, if I could, Though but of common neighbourhood. What joy to hear thee, and to see!
Thy elder brother I would be, Thy father, anything to thee!
Now thanks to Heaven! that of its grace Hath led me to this lonely place. Joy have I had; and going hence I bear away my recompense. In spots like these it is we prize Our memory, feel that she hath eyes; Then, why should I be loath to stir ? I feel this place was made for her; To give new pleasure like the past, Continued long as life shall last. Nor am I loth, though pleased at heart, Sweet Highland Girl! from thee to part; For I, methinks, till I grow old, As fair before me shall behold, As I do now, the cabin small, The lake, the bay, the waterfall And thee, the spirit of them all i
BEHOLD her, single in the field, Yon solitary Highland lass! Reaping and singing by herself. Stop here, or gently pass! Alone she cuts, and binds the grain, And sings a melancholy strain. Oh listen! for the vale profound Is overflowing with the sound.
No nightingale did ever chant So sweetly to reposing bands Of travellers in some shady haunt, Among Arabian sands:
No sweeter voice was ever heard In spring time from a cuckoo-bird, Breaking the silence of the seas Among the furthest Hebrides.
Will no one tell me what she sings? Perhaps the plaintive numbers flow For old, unhappy, far-off things, And battles long ago:
Or is it some more humble lay, Familiar matter of to-day?
Some natural sorrow, loss, or pain, That has been, and may be again!
Whate'er the theme, the maiden sang As if her song could have no ending;
I saw her singing at her work, And o'er the sickle bending I listened till I had my fill: And, as I mounted up the hill, The music in my heart I bore, Long after it was heard no more.
WHILE RESTING ON THE BRIDGE AT THE FOOT OF BROTHER'S WATER.
THE Cock is crowing, The stream is flowing, The small birds twitter,
The lake doth glitter,
The green field sleeps in the sun;
The oldest and youngest
Are at work with the strongest ;
The cattle are grazing,
Their heads never raising;
There are forty feeding like one!
Like an army defeated
The snow hath retreated, And now doth fare ill
On the top of the bare hill;
The plough-boy is whooping-anon-anon :
There's joy in the mountains;
There's life in the fountains;
Small clouds are sailing,
Blue sky prevailing;
The rain is over and gone!
YET are they here-the same unbroken knot Of human beings, in the self-same spot! Men, women, children, yea the frame Of the whole spectacle the same! Only their fires seems bolder, yielding light, Now deep and red, the colouring of night, That on their gipsy-faces falls,
Their bed of straw and blanket-walls.
Twelve hours, twelve bounteous hours, are gone while I Have been a traveller under open sky,
Much witnessing of change and cheer
Yet as I left I find them here!
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