Page images
PDF
EPUB

Pass'd from their mouldy vaults away
In armor red and stern array,
And by their moonlight halls were seen
In visor, helm, and habergeon.
Even fairies sought our land again,
So powerful was the magic strain.
Blest be his generous heart for aye!
He told me where the relic lay;
Pointed my way with ready will
Afar on Ettrick's wildest hill;
Watch'd my first notes with curious eye,
And wonder'd at my minstrelsy:
He little ween'd a parent's tongue
Such strains had o'er my cradle sung.
But when to native feelings true,
I struck upon a chord was new;
When by myself I 'gan to play,
He tried to wile my harp away.
Just when her notes began with skill
To sound beneath the southern hill,
And twine around my bosom's core,
How could we part for evermore?
'Twas kindness all-I cannot blame-
For bootless is the minstrel flame:

But sure a bard might well have known
Another's feelings by his own!

After this, Hogg published various works-"Mador of the Moor," a poem in the Spenserian stanza; "Pilgrims of the Sun," in blank verse; "Poetic Mirror;" "Queen Hynde;" "Dramatic Tales:" also several novels, as "Winter Evening Tales ;" "Brownie of Bodsbeck;" "The Three Perils of Man;" "The Three Perils of Woman;""Jacobite Relics of Scotland," &c. He also wrote much for various periodicals, and has the reputation of being one of the founders of "Blackwood's Magazine." He lived in the latter years of his life in a cottage which he had built at Altrive, supporting himself chiefly by his pen; and died on the 21st of November, 1835.

Of the seventeen songs of the "Queen's Wake," the most beautiful and imaginative is "Kilmeny," founded upon the well-known tradition of the power of the fairies to carry mortals into their country. "Kilmeny," a pure and beautiful maiden, is thus spirited away into fairy land, where she sees various visions, in which are depicted the fortunes of Queen Mary and her successors till the revolution of 1688, and the war of the French Revolution is foreshadowed. The following describes

KILMENY'S RETURN FROM FAIRY LAND.

Then Kilmeny begg'd again to see

The friends she had left in her own countrye,
To tell of the place where she had been,
And the glories that lay in the land unseen.
With distant music, soft and deep,

They lull'd Kilmeny sound asleep;

And when she awaken'd, she lay her lane,'
All happ'd with flowers in the greenwood wane.'
When seven lang years had come and fled,
When grief was calm and hope was dead,
When scarce was remember'd Kilmeny's name,
Late, late in the gloamin' Kilmeny came hame!
And oh, her beauty was fair to see,
But still and steadfast was her ee;
Such beauty bard may never declare,
For there was no pride nor passion there;
And the soft desire of maiden's een

In that mild face could never be seen.
Her seymar' was the lily flower,

And her cheek the moss-rose in the shower;
And her voice like the distant melodye,
That floats along the twilight sea.

But she loved to raike the lanely glen,
And keep'd afar frae the haunts of men,
Her holy hymns unheard to sing,
To suck the flowers and drink the spring.
But wherever her peaceful form appear'd,
The wild beasts of the hill were cheer'd;
The wolf play'd blithely round the field,
The lordly bison low'd and kneel'd,
The dun deer woo'd with manner bland,
And cower'd aneath her lily hand.
And when at eve the woodlands rung,
When hymns of other worlds she sung,
In ecstasy of sweet devotion,

Oh, then the glen was all in motion;
The wild beasts of the forest came,

Broke from their bughts and faulds' the tame,
And gov'd' around, charm'd and amazed;
Even the dull cattle croon'd' and gazed,
And murmur'd, and look'd with anxious pain
For something the mystery to explain.
The buzzard came with the throstle-cock;
The corby left her houf1o in the rock;
The blackbird alang wi' the eagle flew;
The hind came tripping o'er the dew;
The wolf and the kid their raike began,

And the tod," and the lamb, and the leveret ran;
The hawk and the hern attour" them hung,

And the merl and the mavis forhooy'd" their young;
And all in a peaceful ring were hurl'd:

It was like an eve in a sinless world!

When a month and a day had come and gane,

Kilmeny sought the greenwood wane,

There laid her down on the leaves so green,

And Kilmeny on earth was never mair seen!

1 "Her lane," herself alone.- "Happ'd," covered.-3 "Wane," habitation, place of rest"Gloamin," twilight.-"Seymar," resemblance.-"Raike," range.-"Bughts and faulds," enclosures and folds.-8 "Gov'd," moved about inquiringly.-"Croon'd," emitted a murmuring sound.-10 "Houf," haunt.-1 6 Tod," fox.-12 "Attour," about, around.13 "Merl," &c., the blackbird and thrush forsook.

QUEEN MARY'S RETURN TO SCOTLAND.

After a youth by woes o'ercast,
After a thousand sorrows past,
The lovely Mary once again
Set foot upon her native plain;
Knelt on the pier with modest grace,
And turn'd to heaven her beauteous face.
'Twas then the caps in air were blended,
A thousand thousand shouts ascended,
Shiver'd the breeze around the throng.
Gray barrier cliffs the peals prolong;
And every tongue gave thanks to heaven,
That Mary to their hopes was given.

Her comely form and graceful mien
Bespoke the lady and the queen;
The woes of one so fair and young
Moved every heart and every tongue.
Driven from her home, a helpless child,
To brave the winds and billows wild;
An exile bred in realms afar,
Amid commotions, broils, and war.
In one short year, her hopes all cross'd-
A parent, husband, kingdom, lost!
And all ere eighteen years had shed
Their honors o'er her royal head.
For such a queen, the Stuarts' heir-
A queen so courteous, young, and fair—
Who would not every foe defy?

Who would not stand-who would not die?

Light on her airy steed she sprung,
Around with golden tassels hung:
No chieftain there rode half so free,
Or half so light and gracefully.
How sweet to see her ringlets pale
Wide waving in the southland gale,
Which through the broom wood blossoms flew,
To fan her cheeks of rosy hue!

Whene'er it heaved her bosom's screen,
What beauties in her form were seen!
And when her courser's mane it swung,
A thousand silver bells were rung.
A sight so fair, on Scottish plain,
A Scot shall never see again!

When Mary turn'd her wondering eyes
On rocks that seem'd to prop the skies;
On palace, park, and battled pile;
On lake, on river, sea, and isle;
O'er woods and meadows bathed in dew,
To distant mountains wild and blue;
She thought the isle that gave her birth,
The sweetest, wildest land on earth.

THE SKY-LARK

Bird of the wilderness,
Blithesome and cumberless,

Sweet be thy matin o'er moorland and lea!
Emblem of happiness,

Blest is thy dwelling-place

Oh to abide in the desert with thee!
Wild is thy lay, and loud,

Far in the downy cloud,

Love gives it energy, love gave it birth.
Where, on thy dewy wing,

Where art thou journeying?

Thy lay is in heaven, thy love is on earth.

O'er fell and fountain sheen,

O'er moor and mountain green,
O'er the red streamer that heralds the day,
Over the cloudlet dim,

Over the rainbow's rim,

Musical cherub, soar, singing away!

Then, when the gloaming comes,

Low in the heather blooms

Sweet will thy welcome and bed of love be!
Emblem of happiness,

Blest is thy dwelling-place-
Oh to abide in the desert with thee!

TO THE COMET OF 1811.

How lovely is this wilder'd scene,
As twilight from her vaults so blue
Steals soft o'er Yarrow's mountains green,
To sleep embalm'd in midnight dew!
All hail, ye hills, whose towering height,
Like shadows, scoops the yielding sky!
And thou, mysterious guest of night,
Dread traveller of immensity!

Stranger of heaven! I bid thee hail!
Shred from the pall of glory riven,
That flashest in celestial gale,

Broad pennon of the King of Heaven!
Art thou the flag of wo and death,
From angel's ensign-staff unfurl'd?
Art thou the standard of His wrath
Waved o'er a sordid sinful world?

No, from that pure pellucid beam,

That erst o'er plains of Bethlehem snone,

It was reckoned by many that this was the same comet which appeared at the birth of our Saviour.-HOGG.

No latent evil we can deem,
Bright herald of the eternal throne!
Whate'er portends thy front of fire,

Thy streaming locks so lovely pale-
Or peace to man, or judgments dire,

Stranger of heaven, I bid thee hail!
Where hast thou roam'd these thousand years?
Why sought these polar paths again,
From wilderness of glowing spheres,
To fling thy vesture o'er the wain?
And when thou scalest the Milky Way,
And vanishest from human view,
A thousand worlds shall hail thy ray
Through wilds of yon empyreal blue!
Oh! on thy rapid prow to glide!

To sail the boundless skies with thee,
And plough the twinkling stars aside,
Like foam-bells on a tranquil sea!
To brush the embers from the sun,
The icicles from off the pole;
Then far to other systems run,

Where other moons and planets roll?
Stranger of heaven! Oh let thine eye
Smile on a rapt enthusiast's dream;
Eccentric as thy course on high,

And airy as thine ambient beam!
And long, long may thy silver ray
Our northern arch at eve adorn;
Then, wheeling to the east away,

Light the gray portals of the morn!

FELICIA HEMANS, 1793-1835.

FELICIA DOROTHEA BROWNE was the daughter of a Liverpool merchant, and was born on the 25th of September, 1793. From her earliest years she was remarkable for her extreme beauty and precocious talent. At the age of seven, her father was unsuccessful in business and removed to Wales. Here the young poetess passed a happy childhood, and here she imbibed that intense love of nature which ever afterward "haunted her like a passion." She early began to court the Muse, and in 1808 a volume of her poems was published; but it was not received with much favor. This, however, did not discourage her, and she continued to write. In 1812, another volume, entitled "The Domestic Affections, and other Poems," was given to the world-the last that was to appear under her maiden name, for in the summer of that year she exchanged it for the one by which she is generally known, her youthful fancy having been captivated by the martial appearance and military dress of a Captain Hemans, of the army. The

« PreviousContinue »