University of Virginia Library

'Twas in December's drear, and darksome days
When the cold North sends forth his cutting blast:
'Twas when portentous clouds denoting storm
Their sable horrors roll'd around the Heavens:
'Twas when by force of hurricanoes vast,
The towering fir e'en to his root was riven,
Till all of feather, or of fleece, forsook
The Highland hill, to shelter in the vale:
Then 'twas, that poor Silvana to her grief
A prey, and reckless of the threat'ning sky,
Sat on the perilous ridge of the rude rock,
That frowns upon the dizy precipice.
Lonely she sat, and ne'er did sorrow seize
A form more delicate, a soul more kind.
Care, from her tender cheek, now woeful wan
The rose had torn, and in its stead the tear,
Like dew-drops on the lilly, settled there.
Five fleecy friends were to Silvana dear,
And more than five moons wasted had they fed,
On the scant reliques of Silvana's store.
The prickly furze, the weed-entangled grass,
The thistly blade, the heavy hemlock's leaf,
The bitter mallow, and the flowery fern,
Her sheep ne'er cropt, but herbs of sweetertaste,
The vernal pasturage of voluptuous meads,
The richest grazings of the daintiest dell,
The velvet verdure of the violet vale,
The honied clover, and the fragrant blade.
Her daily journey to the fertile farms
Was for the purchase of the day's repast;
But now her eye was fix'd, her bosom bare,
Irregularly throbbing with its woe;
Wild to the pitiless winds her scatter'd locks
Luxurious floated; half her shoulder spread,
And half in deep disorder stream'd in air:
Uplift to Heaven her snowy arms were rais'd
In passion or in prayer; at last a sigh
Heav'd from her hapless heart, and thus she sung.