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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What Tongue can speak the glowing Heart?
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 | The Works of The Ettrick Shepherd |  |
What Tongue can speak the glowing Heart?
What tongue can speak the glowing heart,
What pencil paint the glistening eye,
When your command came to depart
From scenes of triumph, hope, and joy?
What pencil paint the glistening eye,
When your command came to depart
From scenes of triumph, hope, and joy?
Cross'd in life—by villains plunder'd,
More than yet you've given belief;
Fortune's bolts have o'er me thunder'd,
Till my very heart is deaf.
More than yet you've given belief;
Fortune's bolts have o'er me thunder'd,
Till my very heart is deaf.
Hard lives the willow by the strand,
To every pelting surge a prey;
Nor will it leave its native land,
Till every root is torn away:
To every pelting surge a prey;
Nor will it leave its native land,
Till every root is torn away:
So I, like the poor passive willow,
Cling unto my native shore,
Till the next returning billow
Cast me down for evermore.
Cling unto my native shore,
Till the next returning billow
Cast me down for evermore.
Ah! who hath seen the desolation
Of the earthquake's dismal reign,
E'er can hope the renovation
Of his peaceful home again?
Of the earthquake's dismal reign,
E'er can hope the renovation
Of his peaceful home again?
So I, distracted and forlorn,
Look back upon my youthful prime;
And forward to the happy morn
That frees me from the hand of time.
Look back upon my youthful prime;
And forward to the happy morn
That frees me from the hand of time.
| The Works of The Ettrick Shepherd | |