The lay of the last minstrel, a poem |
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Page 12
... Looks out from Yarrow's birchen bower : The Minstrel gazed with wishful eye- No humbler resting - place was nigh . With hesitating step , at last , The embattled portal - arch he passed , Whose ponderous grate and massy bar Had oft ...
... Looks out from Yarrow's birchen bower : The Minstrel gazed with wishful eye- No humbler resting - place was nigh . With hesitating step , at last , The embattled portal - arch he passed , Whose ponderous grate and massy bar Had oft ...
Page 23
... look for sympathy . Her lover , ' gainst her father's clan , With Car in arms had stood , When Mathouse - burn to Melrose ran , All purple with their blood ; And well she knew , her mother dread , Before Lord Cranstoun she should wed ...
... look for sympathy . Her lover , ' gainst her father's clan , With Car in arms had stood , When Mathouse - burn to Melrose ran , All purple with their blood ; And well she knew , her mother dread , Before Lord Cranstoun she should wed ...
Page 32
... look ; If thou readest , thou art lorn ! Better had'st thou ne'er been born . " XXIV . " O swiftly can speed my dapple - gray steed , Which drinks of the Teviot clear ; Ere break of day , " the warrior ' gan say , " Again will I be here ...
... look ; If thou readest , thou art lorn ! Better had'st thou ne'er been born . " XXIV . " O swiftly can speed my dapple - gray steed , Which drinks of the Teviot clear ; Ere break of day , " the warrior ' gan say , " Again will I be here ...
Page 53
... look ; And never to tell where it was hid , Save at his chief of Branksome's need ; And when that need was past and o'er , Again the volume to restore . I buried him on St Michael's night , When the bell tolled one , and the moon was ...
... look ; And never to tell where it was hid , Save at his chief of Branksome's need ; And when that need was past and o'er , Again the volume to restore . I buried him on St Michael's night , When the bell tolled one , and the moon was ...
Page 56
... placed beside his knee : High and majestic was his look , At which the fellest fiends had shook , And all unruffled was his face : - They trusted his soul had gotten grace . XX . Often had William of Deloraine Rode through the 56.
... placed beside his knee : High and majestic was his look , At which the fellest fiends had shook , And all unruffled was his face : - They trusted his soul had gotten grace . XX . Often had William of Deloraine Rode through the 56.
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Common terms and phrases
ancient arms band bard Baron Beattisons beneath betwixt blaze blood blood-hound Border Branksome Branksome Hall Branksome's Buccleuch called CANTO castle Cessford chapel chief clan courser cross Cumberland dæmons Dame dead death Douglas dread Duke Earl Earl of Angus Edinburgh Eildon hills English Eskdale Ettricke Ettricke Forest fair on Carlisle friends Froissart gallant hall hand harp Hawick head heard heart highnes horse Howard James Jedburgh king Kirkwall knight Ladye lances lands LAST MINSTREL Liddesdale Lord Dacre loud Melrose Melrose Abbey Michael MINSTREL moss-trooper Musgrave Naworth Castle ne'er noble o'er ride rode Roslin round rung sayd Scot Scotland Scottish Scottish Border shew shulde Sir William slain song spear St Clair steed stone stood sun shines fair sword Teviot's Teviotdale thee theyme theyre Thomas Musgrave thou Tinlinn tower Twas tyme Virgilius warden warrior ween wild William of Deloraine word wound
Popular passages
Page 141 - CALL it not vain ¡—they do not err, Who say, that when the Poet dies, Mute Nature mourns her worshipper, And celebrates his obsequies : Who say, tall cliff, and cavern lone, For the departed Bard make moan ; That mountains weep in crystal rill ; That flowers in tears of balm distil ; Through his loved groves that breezes sigh, And oaks, in deeper groan, reply; And rivers teach their rushing wave To murmur dirges round his grave.
Page 12 - Stuarts' throne : The bigots of the iron time Had called his harmless art a crime. A wandering Harper, scorned and poor, He begged his bread from door to door ! And tuned, to please a peasant's ear, The harp, a king had loved to hear.
Page 43 - IF thou would'st view fair Melrose aright, Go visit it by the pale moon-light ; For the gay beams of lightsome day Gild, but to flout, the ruins gray.
Page 206 - That day of wrath, .that dreadful day, When heaven and earth shall pass away, What power shall be the sinner's stay ? How shall he meet that dreadful day ? When, shrivelling like a parched scroll, The flaming heavens together roll ; When louder yet, and yet more dread, Swells the high trump that wakes the dead ! Oh ! on that day, that wrathful day, When man to judgment wakes from clay, Be THOU the trembling sinner's stay, Though heaven and earth shall pass away ! HUSH'D is the harp — the Minstrel...
Page 13 - Though born in such a high degree; In pride of power, in beauty's bloom, Had wept o'er Monmouth's bloody tomb! When kindness had his wants supplied, And the old man was gratified, Began to rise his minstrel pride: And he began to talk anon Of good Earl Francis, dead and gone, And of Earl Walter, rest him, God!
Page 59 - Tis said, as through the aisles they passed, They heard strange noises on the blast ; And through the cloister-galleries small, Which at mid-height thread the chancel wall, Loud sobs, and laughter louder ran, And voices unlike the voice of man ; As if the fiends kept holiday, Because these spells were brought to day. I cannot tell how the truth may be ; I say the tale as 'twas said to me.
Page 44 - When the cold light's uncertain shower Streams on the ruined central tower ; When buttress and buttress, alternately, Seem framed of ebon and ivory; When silver edges the imagery, And the scrolls that teach thee to live and die ; When distant Tweed is heard to rave, And the owlet to hoot o'er the dead man's grave, Then go — but go alone the while — Then view St. David's ruined pile ; And, home returning, soothly swear, Was never scene so sad and fair...
Page 196 - Moor, moor the barge, ye gallant crew ! And, gentle ladye, deign to stay ! Rest thee in Castle Ravensheuch, Nor tempt the stormy firth to-day. " The blackening wave is edged with white : To inch and rock the sea-mews fly ; The fishers have heard the Water-Sprite, Whose screams forbode that wreck is nigh.
Page 176 - From wandering on a foreign strand ? If such there breathe, go, mark him well; For him no minstrel raptures swell ; High though his titles, proud his name, Boundless his wealth as wish can claim, — Despite those titles, power, and pelf, The wretch, concentred all in self, Living, shall forfeit fair renown, And, doubly dying, shall go down To the vile dust from whence he sprung, Unwept, unhonored, and unsung.
Page 16 - In varying cadence, soft or strong, He swept the sounding chords along: The present scene, the future lot, His toils, his wants, were all forgot; Cold diffidence and age's frost In the full tide of song were lost; Each blank...