by Homer
When grief was calm, and hope was dead;
When scarce was remember’d Kilmeny’s name.
Late, late in a gloamin’ Kilmeny came hame!
And O, her beauty was fair to see, 280
But still and steadfast was her e’e!
Such beauty bard may never declare,
For there was no pride nor passion there;
And the soft desire of maiden’s e’en
In that mild face could never be seen. 285
Her seymar was the lily flower,
And her cheek the moss-rose in the shower;
And her voice like the distant melodye,
That floats along the twilight sea.
But she loved to raike the lanely glen, 290
And keepèd afar frae the haunts of men;
Her holy hymns unheard to sing,
To suck the flowers, and drink the spring.
But wherever her peaceful form appear’d,
The wild beasts of the hill were cheer’d; 295
The wolf play’d blythly round the field,
The lordly byson low’d and kneel’d;
The dun deer woo’d with manner bland,
And cower’d aneath her lily hand.
And when at even the woodlands rung, 300
When hymns of other worlds she sung
In ecstasy of sweet devotion,
O, then the glen was all in motion!
The wild beasts of the forest came,
Broke from their bughts and faulds the tame, 305
And goved around, charm’d and amazed;
Even the dull cattle croon’d and gazed,
And murmur’d and look’d with anxious pain
For something the mystery to explain.
The buzzard came with the throstle-cock; 310
The corby left her houf in the rock;
The blackbird alang wi’ the eagle flew;
The hind came tripping o’er the dew;
The wolf and the kid their raike began,
And the tod, and the lamb, and the leveret ran; 315
The hawk and the hern attour them hung,
And the merle and the mavis forhooy’d their young;
And all in a peaceful ring were hurl’d;
It was like an Eve in a sinless world!
When a month and a day had come and gane, 320
Kilmeny sought the green-wood wene;
There laid her down on the leaves sae green,
And Kilmeny on earth was never mair seen.
But O, the words that fell from her mouth
Were words of wonder, and words of truth! 325
But all the land were in fear and dread,
For they kendna whether she was living or dead.
It wasna her hame, and she couldna remain;
She left this world of sorrow and pain,
And return’d to the land of thought again. 330
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
When the Kye Comes Hame
James Hogg (1770–1835)
COME all ye jolly shepherds,
That whistle through the glen,
I’ll tell ye of a secret
That courtiers dinna ken:
What is the greatest bliss 5
That the tongue o’ man can name?
’Tis to woo a bonny lassie
When the kye comes hame.
When the kye comes hame,
When the kye comes hame, 10
‘Tween the gloaming an’ the mirk
When the kye comes hame.
’Tis not beneath the coronet,
Nor canopy of state,
’Tis not on couch of velvet, 15
Nor arbour of the great —
’Tis beneath the spreading birk,
In the glen without the name,
Wi’ a bonny, bonny lassie,
When the kye comes hame. 20
There the blackbird bigs his nest
For the mate he loes to see,
And on the topmost bough,
O, a happy bird is he;
Where he pours his melting ditty, 25
And love is a’ the theme,
And he’ll woo his bonny lassie
When the kye comes hame.
When the blewart bears a pearl,
And the daisy turns a pea, 30
And the bonny lucken gowan
Has fauldit up her e’e,
Then the laverock frae the blue lift
Drops down, an’ thinks nae shame
To woo his bonny lassie 35
When the kye comes hame.
See yonder pawkie shepherd,
That lingers on the hill,
His ewes are in the fauld,
An’ his lambs are lying still; 40
Yet he downa gang to bed,
For his heart is in a flame,
To meet his bonny lassie
When the kye comes hame.
When the little wee bit heart 45
Rises high in the breast,
An’ the little wee bit starn
Rises red in the east,
O there’s a joy sae dear,
That the heart can hardly frame, 50
Wi’ a bonny, bonny lassie,
When the kye comes hame!
Then since all nature joins
In this love without alloy,
O, wha wad prove a traitor 55
To Nature’s dearest joy?
Or wha wad choose a crown,
Wi’ its perils and its fame,
And miss his bonny lassie
When the kye comes hame? 60
When the kye comes hame,
When the kye comes hame,
‘Tween the gloaming and the mirk,
When the kye comes hame.
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
The Skylark
James Hogg (1770–1835)
BIRD of the wilderness,
Blythesome and cumberless,
Sweet be thy matin o’er moorland and lea!
Emblem of happiness,
Blest is thy dwelling-place — 5
O to abide in the desert with thee!
Wild is thy lay and loud,
Far in the downy cloud,
Love gives it energy, love gave it birth.
Where, on thy dewy wing, 10
Where art thou journeying?
Thy lay is in heaven, thy love is on earth.
O’er fell and fountain sheen,
O’er moor and mountain green,
O’er the red steamer that heralds the day, 15
Over the cloudlet dim,
Over the rainbow’s rim,
Musical cherub, soar, singing, away!
Then, when the gloaming comes,
Low in the heather blooms, 20
Sweet will thy welcome and bed of love be!
Emblem of happiness,
Blest is thy dwelling-place —
O to abide in the desert with thee!
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Lock the Door, Lariston
James Hogg (1770–1835)
LOCK the door, Lariston, lion of Liddisdale,
Lock the door, Lariston, Lowther come on,
The Armstrongs are flying,
The widows are crying,
The Castletown’s burning, and Oliver’s gone! 5
Lock the door, Lariston, — high on the weather-gleam,
See how the Saxon plumes bob on the sky, —
Yeoman and carbinier,
Bilman and halberdier;
Fierce is the foray, and far is the cry. 10
Bewcastle brandishes high his broad scimitar;
Ridley is riding his fleet-footed grey;
Hidley and Howard there,
Wandale and Windermere, —
Lock the door, Lariston; hold them at bay. 15
Why dost thou smile, noble
Elliot of Lariston?
Why do the joy-candles gleam in thine eye?
Thou bold Border ranger,
Beware of thy danger; —
Thy foes are relentless, determined, and nigh. 20
Jock Elliot raised up his steel bonnet and lookit,
His hand grasped the sword with a nervous embrace;
‘Ah, welcome, brave foemen,
On earth there are no men
More gallant to meet in the foray or chase! 25
‘Little know you of the hearts I have hidden here;
Little know you of our moss-troopers’ might —
Lindhope and Sorbie true,
Sundhope and Milburn too,
Gentle in manner, but lions in fight! 30
‘I’ve Mangerton, Ogilvie, Raeburn, and Netherbie,
Old Sim of Whitram, and all his array;
Come, all Northumberland,
Teesdale and Cumberland,
Here at the Breaken tower end shall the fray.’ 35
Scowl’d the broad sun o’er the links of green Liddisdale,
Red as the beacon-light tipp’d he the wold;
Many a bold martial eye,
Mirror’d that morning sky,
Never more oped on his orbit of gold! 40
Shrill was the bugle’s note! dreadful the warriors’ shout!
Lances and halberds in splinters were borne;
Helmet and hauberk then
Braved the claymore in vain,
Buckler armlet in shivers were shorn. 45
See how they wane — the proud files of the Windermere!
Howard — ah! woe to thy hopes of the day!
Hear the wide welkin rend,
While the Scots’ shouts ascend,
‘Elliot of Lariston, Elliot for aye!’ 50
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Robert Surtees
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Barthram’s Dirge
Robert Surtees (1779–1834)
THEY shot him dead on the Nine-Stone rig,
Beside the Headless Cross,
And they left him lying in his blood,
Upon the moor and moss.
They made a bier of the broken bough, 5
The sauch and the aspen grey,
And they bore him to the Lady Chapel,
And waked him there all day.
A lady came to that lonely bower
And threw her robes aside, 10
She tore her long yellow hair,
And knelt at Barthram’s side.
She bath’d him in the Lady-Well
His wounds so deep and sair,
And she plaited a garland for his breast, 15
And a garland for his hair.
They rowed him in a lily sheet,
And bare him to his earth,
(And the Grey Friars sung the dead man’s mass,
As they passed the Chapel Garth). 20
They buried him at the midnight,
(When the dew fell cold and still,
When the aspen grey forgot to play,
And the mist clung to the hill).
They dug his grave but a bare foot deep, 25
By the edge of the Nine-Stone Burn,
And they covered him o’er with the heather-flower,
The moss and the Lady fern.
A Grey Friar staid upon the grave,
And sang till the morning tide, 30
And a friar shall sing for Barthram’s soul,
While Headless Cross shall bide.
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Thomas Campbell
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
The Soldier’s Dream
Thomas Campbell (1777–1844)
OUR bugles sang truce, for the night-cloud had lower’d,
And the sentinel stars set their watch in the sky;
And thousands had sunk on the ground overpower’d;
The weary to sleep, and the wounded to die.
When reposing that night on my pallet of straw 5
By the wolf-scaring faggot that guarded the slain,
At the dead of the night a sweet Vision I saw;
And thrice ere the morning I dreamt it again.
Methought from the battle-field’s dreadful array
Far, far, I had roam’d on a desolate track: 10
’Twas Autumn, — and sunshine arose on the way
To the home of my fathers, that welcomed me back.
I flew to the pleasant fields traversed so oft
In life’s morning march, when my bosom was young;
I heard my own mountain-goats bleating aloft, 15
And knew the sweet strain that the corn-reapers sung.
Then pledged we the wine-cup, and fondly I swore
From my home and my weeping friends never to part;
My little ones kiss’d me a thousand times o’er,
And my wife sobb’d aloud in her fulness of heart. 20
‘Stay — stay with us! — rest! — thou art weary and worn!’ —
And fain was their war-broken soldier to stay; —
But sorrow return’d with the dawning of morn,
And the voice in my dreaming ear melted away.
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
To the Evening Star
Thomas Campbell (1777–1844)
STAR that bringest home the bee,
And sett’st the weary labourer free!
If any star shed peace, ’tis Thou
That send’st it from above.
Appearing when Heaven’s breath and brow 5
Are sweet as hers we love.
Come to the luxuriant skies,
Whilst the landscape’s odours rise,
Whilst far-off lowing herds are heard
And songs when toil is done, 10
From cottages whose smoke unstirr’d
Curls yellow in the sun.
Star of love’s soft interviews,
Parted lovers on thee muse;
Their remembrancer in Heaven 15
Of thrilling vows thou art,
Too delicious to be riven
By absence from the heart.
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
List of Poets in Alphabetical Order
Ode to Winter
Germany, December, 1800
Thomas Campbell (1777–1844)
WHEN first the fiery-mantled Sun
His heavenly race began to run,
Round the earth and ocean blue
His children four the Seasons flew: —
First, in green apparel dancing, 5
The young Spring smiled with angel-grace;
Rosy Summer next advancing,
Rush’d into her sire’s embrace —
Her bright-hair’d sire, who bade her keep
For ever nearest to his smiles, 10
On Calpe’s olive-shaded steep
Or India’s citron-cover’d isles.
More remote, and buxom-brown,
The Queen of vintage bow’d before his throne;
A rich pomegranate gemm’d her crown, 15
A ripe sheaf bound her zone.
But howling Winter fled afar
To hills that prop the polar star;
And loves on deer-borne car to ride
With barren darkness at his side, 20
Round the shore where loud Lofoden
Whirls to death the roaring whale,
Round the hall where Runic Odin
Howls his war-song to the gale —
Save when adown the ravaged globe 25
He travels on his native storm,
Deflowering Nature’s grassy robe
And trampling on his native storm,
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Till light’s returning Lord assume
The shaft that drives him to his northern field, 30
Of power to pierce his raven plume
And crystal-cover’d shield.
O, sire of storms! whose savage ear
The Lapland drum delights to hear,
When Frenzy with her bloodshot eye 35
Implores thy dreadful deity —
Archangel! Power of desolation!
Fast descending as thou art,
Say, hath mortal invocation
Spells to touch thy stony heart: 40
Then, sullen Winter! hear my prayer,
And gently rule the ruin’d year;
Nor chill the wanderer’s bosom bare
Nor freeze the wretch’s falling tear:
To shuddering Want’s unmantled bed 45
Thy horror-breathing agues cease to lend,
And gently on the orphan head
Of Innocence descend.
But chiefly spare, O king of clouds!
The sailor on his airy shrouds, 50
When wrecks and beacons strew the steep,
And spectres walk along the deep.
Milder yet thy snowy breezes
Pour on yonder tented shores,
Where the Rhine’s broad billow freezes 55
Or the dark-brown Danube roars.
O, winds of Winter! list ye there
To many a deep and dying groan?
Or start, ye demons of the midnight air,
At shrieks and thunders louder than your own? 60
Alas! e’en your unhallow’d breath
May spare the victim fallen low;
But Man will ask no truce to death,
No bounds to human woe.
List of Poems in Alphabetical Order
