AN INSCRIPTION. SHEPHERD, or Huntsman, or worn Mariner, Whate'er thou art, who wouldst allay thy thirst, And these rude seats of earth within the grove, * See an anecdote related by Pausanias. iii. 20. WRITTEN IN THE HIGHLANDS OF SCOTLAND, SEPTEMBER 2, 1812. BLUE was the loch,* the clouds were gone, Ben-Lomond in his glory shone, When, Luss, I left thee; when the breeze Bore me from thy silver sands, Thy kirk-yard wall among the trees, Where, grey with age, the dial stands; That dial so well-known to me! -Tho' many a shadow it had shed, Beloved Sister, since with thee The legend on the stone was read. The fairy-isles fled far away; * Loch-Lomond. M While, as the boat went merrily, Much of ROB Roy the boat-man told; His arm that fell below his knee, His cattle-ford and mountain-hold. Tarbat,† thy shore I climbed at last; And, thy shady region passed, Upon another shore I stood, I And looked upon another flood; ‡ That narrow sea, that narrow sky, As o'er the glimmering waves we flew, *A famous out-law. + Signifying in the Erse language an Isthmus. Loch-Long. And now the grampus, half descried, N 5M The shattered fortress, whence the Dane Blew his shrill blast, nor rushed in vain, All into midnight-shadow sweep When day springs upward from the deep! * Kindling the waters in its flight, The prow wakes splendour; and the oar, That rose and fell unseen before, Flashes in a sea of light! Glad sign, and sure! for now we hail Thy flowers, Glenfinart, in the gale; And bright indeed the path should be, * A phenomenon described by many navigators. Oh blest retreat, and sacred too! Sacred as when the bell of prayer Tolled duly on the desert air, And crosses decked thy summits blue Oft shall my weary mind recall, Thy beechen grove and waterfall, And Her-the Lady of the Glen! |