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 Gipsies.
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 | The Works of The Ettrick Shepherd |  |
The Gipsies.
Hast thou not noted on the bye-way side,
Where England's loanings stretch unsoiled and wide,
Or by the brook that through the valley pours,
Where mimic waves play lightly through the flowers—
A noisy crew, far straggling in the glade,
Busied with trifles or in slumber laid;
Their children lolling round them on the grass,
Or pestering with their sports the patient ass?
Where England's loanings stretch unsoiled and wide,
Or by the brook that through the valley pours,
Where mimic waves play lightly through the flowers—
A noisy crew, far straggling in the glade,
Busied with trifles or in slumber laid;
Their children lolling round them on the grass,
Or pestering with their sports the patient ass?
The wrinkled grandam there you may espy,
The ripe young maiden with the glossy eye,
Men in their prime—the striplings dark and dun,
Scathed by the storms and freckled by the sun:
Oh, mark them well, when next the group you see
In vacant barn, or resting on the lea!
They are the remnant of a race of old—
Spare not the trifle for your fortune told,
For there shalt thou behold with nature blent
A tint of mind in every lineament;
A mould of soul distinct, but hard to trace,
Unknown except to Israel's wandering race;
For thence, as sages say, their line they drew—
Oh, mark them well! the tales of old are true.
The ripe young maiden with the glossy eye,
Men in their prime—the striplings dark and dun,
Scathed by the storms and freckled by the sun:
Oh, mark them well, when next the group you see
In vacant barn, or resting on the lea!
They are the remnant of a race of old—
Spare not the trifle for your fortune told,
For there shalt thou behold with nature blent
A tint of mind in every lineament;
A mould of soul distinct, but hard to trace,
Unknown except to Israel's wandering race;
For thence, as sages say, their line they drew—
Oh, mark them well! the tales of old are true.
'Tis told that once in ages long gone by,
When Christian zeal ran to extremity;
When Europe, like a flood no might could stem,
Poured forth her millions on Jerusalem;
One roaming tribe of Araby they won,
Bent on the spoil and foray just begun.
Great was their value—every path they knew,
Where sprung the fountain, where the forage grew,
And better wist than all the Christian men
How to mislead and vex the Saracen.
When Christian zeal ran to extremity;
When Europe, like a flood no might could stem,
Poured forth her millions on Jerusalem;
One roaming tribe of Araby they won,
Bent on the spoil and foray just begun.
Great was their value—every path they knew,
Where sprung the fountain, where the forage grew,
And better wist than all the Christian men
How to mislead and vex the Saracen.
But when the nations by experience knew
Their folly, and from eastern realms withdrew,
The alien tribe durst not remain behind,
Empires and hordes against them were combined.
Thither they came.—But still the word of Heaven
Stedfast remains to ancient Abram given:
“Wild shall they be 'mid nations from their birth,
All hands against them—theirs against all earth.”
Thus still they wander unrestrained and free
As erst their fathers did in Araby.
Peopled or not—it is the same—they view
The earth as their unalienable due,
And move by one undeviating plan
To take whate'er they may—protect who can.
Strange are their annals—Oh, regard them well!
For thou hast much to hear and I to tell.
[OMITTED]
Their folly, and from eastern realms withdrew,
The alien tribe durst not remain behind,
Empires and hordes against them were combined.
Thither they came.—But still the word of Heaven
Stedfast remains to ancient Abram given:
“Wild shall they be 'mid nations from their birth,
All hands against them—theirs against all earth.”
Thus still they wander unrestrained and free
As erst their fathers did in Araby.
Peopled or not—it is the same—they view
The earth as their unalienable due,
And move by one undeviating plan
To take whate'er they may—protect who can.
Strange are their annals—Oh, regard them well!
For thou hast much to hear and I to tell.
| The Works of The Ettrick Shepherd | |