down! Thro' a long life his hopes and wishes crown, With many a filial tear circling the bed of death! 1 LAMENT LAMENT FOR JAMES, EARL OF GLENCAIRN. THE wind blew hollow frae the hills, By fits the sun's departing beam Look'd on the fading yellow woods That wav'd o'er Lugar's winding stream: Beneath a craigy steep, a bard, Laden with years and meikle pain, In loud lament bewail'd his lord, Whom death had all untimely ta'en. He He lean'd him to an ancient aik, "Ye scatter'd birds that faintly sing, "I am a bending aged tree, "That long has stood the wind and rain; "But now has come a cruel blast, "And my last hald of earth is gane: "Nae leaf o' mine shall greet the spring, "Nae simmer sun exalt my bloom; "But I maun lie before the storm, "And ithers plant them in my room. "I've seen sae mony changefu' years, "On earth I am a stranger grown; VOL. III. Y "I wander "I wander in the ways of men, "And last, (the sum of a' my griefs!) "His country's pride, his country's stay: "In weary being now I pine, "For a' the life of life is dead, "And hope has left my aged ken, "On forward wing for ever fled. "Awake thy last sad voice, my harp! "The voice of woe and wild despair! "Awake, resound thy latest lay, "Then sleep in silence evermair! "And thou, my last, best, only friend, 66 "That fillest an untimely tomb, Accept this tribute from the bard "Thou brought from fortune's mirkest gloom. "In poverty's low barren vale, "Thick mists, obscure, involv'd me round "Though oft I turn'd the wistful eye, "Nae ray of fame was to be found: ; "Thou "Thou found'st me, like the morning sun "O! why has worth so short a date? "The bridegroom may forget the bride "That smiles sae sweetly on her knee; |