Synopses & Reviews
Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: STANZAS. WRITTEN AFTER VISITING MELROSE ABBEY IN COMPANY OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. I Lived an hour in fair Melrose; It was not when the pale moonlight Its magnifying charm bestows; Yet deem I that I viewed it right. The wind-swept shadows fast careered Like living things that joyed or feared, Adowu the sunny Eildon Hill, And the sweet winding Tweed the distance crowned well. n. I inly laughed to see that scene Wear such a countenance of youth, Though many an age those hills were green, And yonder river glided smooth, Ere in these now disjointed walls, The Mother Church held festivals, And full-voiced anthemings the while Swelled from the choir, and lingered down the echoing aisle. I coveted that Abbey's doom; For if I thought the early flowers Of our aflection may not bloom, Like those green hills through countless hours, Grant me at least a tardy waning, Some pleasure still in age's paining; Though lines and forms must fade away, Still may old Beauty share the empire of Decay But looking toward the grassy mound Where calm the Douglas chieftains lie, Who living, quiet never found, I straightway learnt a lesson high: For there an old man sat serene, And well I knew that thoughtful mien Of him whose early lyre had thrown Over these mould'ring walls the magic of its tone. Then ceased I from my envying state And knew that aweless intellect Hath power upon the ways of fate, And works through time and space uncheckt. That minstrel of old chivalry In the cold grave must come to be, But his transmitted thoughts have part In the collective mind, and never shall depart. It was a comfort too to see Those dogs that from him ne'er would rove, And always eyed him rev'rently With glances of depending love. They kn...
Synopsis
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