The Works of The Ettrick Shepherd Centenary Edition. With a Memoir of the Author, by the Rev. Thomas Thomson ... Poems and Life. With Many Illustrative Engravings [by James Hogg] |
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 | The Works of The Ettrick Shepherd |  |
Adieu, dear maids of Scotia wide,
Your minstrel's solace and his pride;
The theme that all his feelings move
Of grief, of pity, and of love;
To you he bows with lowly bend;
His ancient tale is at an end.
More would he tell, but deems it best
That history's page should say the rest.
Your minstrel's solace and his pride;
The theme that all his feelings move
Of grief, of pity, and of love;
To you he bows with lowly bend;
His ancient tale is at an end.
More would he tell, but deems it best
That history's page should say the rest.
There thou may'st read, and read with gain,
Of Eiden's long and holy reign;
How Haco and his winsome Wene
Were Scandinavia's king and queen;
How much he owed her in his sway,
And loved her to his latest day.
He and his inmates to a man,
Dress'd in the garb of Highland clan
(Of Skye-men, whom they slew in fight,
When Donald Gorm was beat by night),
The maids had rescued from the pile,
And borne them to some western isle:
Thence they return'd to Albyn's coast
In wedded love, when all their host,
Save those within the ships that lay,
Had melted from the world away,
And were received with greetings kind
By Eiden and his lovely Hynde.
'Twas there that ancient league was framed,
For wisdom, peace, and justice famed
For many ages—Blest is he,
Thus hallow'd by posterity!
Of Eiden's long and holy reign;
How Haco and his winsome Wene
Were Scandinavia's king and queen;
How much he owed her in his sway,
And loved her to his latest day.
He and his inmates to a man,
Dress'd in the garb of Highland clan
(Of Skye-men, whom they slew in fight,
When Donald Gorm was beat by night),
The maids had rescued from the pile,
And borne them to some western isle:
Thence they return'd to Albyn's coast
In wedded love, when all their host,
Save those within the ships that lay,
Had melted from the world away,
And were received with greetings kind
By Eiden and his lovely Hynde.
'Twas there that ancient league was framed,
For wisdom, peace, and justice famed
For many ages—Blest is he,
Thus hallow'd by posterity!
| The Works of The Ettrick Shepherd | |