his own more comprehensive design, and induce to fulfil it?- There is a sympathy in streams "one calleth to another ;" and, I would gladly bei that "The Brook" will, ere long, murmur in con with "The Duddon." But, asking pardon for fancy, I need not scruple to say, that those ve must indeed be ill-fated which can enter upon pleasant walks of nature, without receiving and g inspiration. The power of waters over the mind. Poets has been acknowledged from the earliest a others were added upon occasional visits to the Stream, or as recollections of the scenes upon its banks awakened a wish to describe them. In this manner I had proceeded insensibly, without perceiving that I was trespassing upon ground pre-occupied, at least as far as intention went, by Mr. Coleridge; who, more than twenty years ago, used to speak of writing a rural Poem, to be entitled "The Brook," of which he has given a sketch in a recent publication. But a particular subject cannot, I think, much interfere with a general one; and I have been further kept from en--through the "Flumina amem sylvasque inglor croaching upon any right Mr. C. may still wish to exercise, by the restriction which the frame of the Sonnet imposed upon me, narrowing unavoidably the range of thought, and precluding, though not without its advantages, many graces to which a freer movement of verse would naturally have led. May I not venture, then, to hope, that, instead of being a hinderance, by anticipation of any part of the subject, these Sonnets may remind Mr. Coleridge of of Virgil, down to the sublime apostrophe to great rivers of the earth, by Armstrong, and simple ejaculation of Burns, (chosen, if I recoll right, by Mr. Coleridge, as a motto for his em "Brook,") The Muse nae Poet ever fand her, Till by himsel' he learned to wander, YARROW REVISITED, AND OTHER POEMS, DURING COMPOSED (TWO EXCEPTED) DURING A TOUR IN SCOTLAND, AND ON And what, for this frail world, were all Memorial tribute offer? Yea, what were mighty Nature's self? Nor deem that localized Romance Plays false with our affections; Unsanctifies our tears-made sport For fanciful dejections: Ah, no! the visions of the past Sustain the heart in feeling Life as she is our changeful Life, With friends and kindred dealing. Bear witness, Ye, whose thoughts that day In Yarrow's groves were center'd; Who through the silent portal arch Of mouldering Newark entered, By the "last Minstrel," (not the last) Flow on for ever, Yarrow Stream! Fulfil thy pensive duty, Well pleased that future Bards should chant To dream-light dear while yet unseen, And dearer still, as now I feel, To memory's shadowy moonshine! ON THE DEPARTURE OF SIR WALTER SCOTT FROM A TROUBLE, not of clouds, or weeping rain, Ye winds of ocean, and the midland sea, II. A PLACE OF BURIAL IN THE SOUTH OF SCOTLAND. PART fenced by man, part by a ragged steep V. THE TROSACHS. THERE's not a nook within this solemn Pass, Rocks, rivers, and smooth lakes more clear than III. ON THE SIGHT OF A MANSE IN THE SOUTH OF SAY, ye far-travelled clouds, far-seeing hills, And o'er wide plains whereon the sky distils VI. CHANGES. THE Pibroch's note, discountenanced or mute; Her lark's loved warblings; does aught meet your ken To weather-fend the Celtic herdsman's headMore fit to animate the Poet's pen, Aught that more surely by its aspect fills Pure minds with sinless envy, than the Abode Of the good Priest; who, faithful through all hours All speak of manners withering to the root, (We know not whence) ministers for a bell Share with their sculptured fellows, that, green-grown, VII. COMPOSED IN THE GLEN OF LOCH ETIVE THIS Land of Rainbows, spanning glens whose wa Rock-built, are hung with rainbow-coloured mists. Of far-stretched Meres, whose salt flood never res Of tuneful caves and playful waterfalls, Of mountains varying momently their crestsProud be this Land! whose poorest Huts are He Where Fancy entertains becoming guests; While native song the heroic Past recalls. Thus, in the net of her own wishes caught, The Muse exclaimed; but Story now must hide Her trophies, Fancy crouch;- the course of prid Has been diverted, other lessons taught, That make the Patriot-spirit bow her head Where the all-conquering Roman feared to tread. VIII. COMPOSED AFTER READING A NEWSPAPER OF THE DAY. YOPLE! your chains are severing link by link; Ssbail the Rich be levelled down - the Poor Get them half way." Vain boast! for These, the more - thus would rise, must low and lower sink 7 by repentance stung, they fear to think; Wale all lie prostrate, save the tyrant few Fin quick turns each other to undo, And mix the poison, they themselves must drink. 'I trust thyself, vain Country! cease to cry, Kowledge will save me from the threatened woe." Tr, ff than other rash ones more thou know, Vet on presumptuous wing as far would fly Aave thy knowledge as they dared to go, Txa wilt provoke a heavier penalty. XI. AT TYNDRUM. ENOUGH of garlands, of the Arcadian crook, Of Nature's privy council, as thou art, On cloud-sequestered heights, that see and hear On earth, who works in the heaven of heavens, alone. IX. EAGLES. COMPOSED AT DUNOLLIE CASTLE IN THE BAY OF OBAN. HONOURED Rock and Ruin! that, by law Traunic, keep the Bird of Jove embarred ae a lone criminal whose life is spared. red is he, and screams loud. The last I saw as on the wing; stooping, he struck with awe Vae, bird, and beast; then, with a Consort paired, Fra bold headland, their loved eiry's guard, high above Atlantic waves, to draw !from the fountain of the setting sun. Math was this Prisoner once; and, when his plumes The sea-blast ruffles as the storm comes on, sunt, for a moment, he resumes rank 'mong freeborn creatures that live free, He power, his beauty, and his majesty. XII. THE EARL OF BREADALBANE'S RUINED MANSION Grief of her sting; nor cheat, where he detains X. IN THE SOUND OF MULL. "DITION, be thou mute! Oblivion, throw by wil, in mercy, o'er the records hung · XIII. REST AND BE THANKFUL, AT THE HEAD OF GLENCROE. DOUBLING and doubling with laborious walk, And strath and mountain, stamped by the ancient Who, that has gained at length the wished-for Height, the ruck and ruin darkening as we go, te where a word, ghost-like, survives to show bat erames from hate, or desperate love, have sprung; Prebour misconceived, or fancied wrong, "at feuds, not quenched but fed by mutual woe: Yet, though a wild vindictive Race, untamed El arts and labours of the pen, fond gentleness be scorned by these fierce Men, to spread wide the reverence that they claimed patriarchal occupations, named 1 towering Peaks, "Shepherds of Etive Glen ?"* *In Gaelic, Buachaill Eite This brief this simple way-side call can slight, XIV. HIGHLAND HUT. SEE what gay wild flowers deck this earth-built Cot, In the gray sky hath left his lingering Ghost, And why shouldst thou? If rightly trained and bred, The mountain borders of this seat of care, Humanity is humble, finds no spot Which her Heaven-guided feet refuse to tread. The walls are cracked, sunk is the flowery roof, Can question that thy countenance is bright, Celestial Power, as much with love as light! XV. THE BROWNIE. Upon a small island, not far from the head of Loch Lomond, are some remains of an ancient building, which was for several years the abode of a solitary Individual, one of the last survivors of the Clan of Macfarlane, once powerful in that neighbourhood. Passing along the shore opposite this island in the year 1814, the Author learned these particulars, and that this person then living there had acquired the appellation of "The Brownie." (See The Brownie's Cell," p. 207, to which the following Sonnet is a sequel. "How disappeared he?" Ask the newt and toad; XVI. TO THE PLANET VENUS, AN EVENING STAR. THOUGH joy attend thee orient at the birth To watch thy course when Day-light, fled from earth, * See Note. XVIL BOTHWELL CASTLE. IMMURED in Bothwell's Towers, at times the Brave XVIII. PICTURE OF DANIEL IN THE LIONS DEN AT AMID a fertile region green with wood *See Note. |