An Ode On The Popular Superstitions Of The Highlands Of Scotland, Considered As The Subject Of Poetr Poem Rhyme Scheme

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William Collins

An Ode On The Popular Superstitions Of The Highlands Of Scotland, Considered As The Subject Of Poetr Poem Rhyme Scheme and Analysis

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Home thou return'st from Thames whose naiads long	A
Have seen thee ling'ring with a fond delay	B
'Mid those soft friends whose hearts some future day	B
Shall melt perhaps to hear thy tragic song	A
Go not unmindful of that cordial youth	C
Whom long endear'd thou leav'st by Lavant's side	D
Together let us wish him lasting truth	C
And joy untainted with his destin'd bride	D
Go nor regardless while these numbers boast	E
My short liv'd bliss forget my social name	F
But think far off how on the southern coast	E
I met thy friendship with an equal flame	F
Fresh to that soil thou turn'st whose ev'ry vale	G
Shall prompt the poet and his song demand	H
To thee thy copious subjects ne'er shall fail	G
Thou need'st but take the pencil to thy hand	H
And paint what all believe who own thy genial land	H
	-
There must thou wake perforce thy Doric quill	I
'Tis Fancy's land to which thou sett'st thy feet	J
Where still 'tis said the fairy people meet	J
Beneath each birken shade on mead or hill	I
There each trim lass that skims the milky store	K
To the swart tribes their creamy bowl allots	L
By night they sip it round the cottage door	K
While airy minstrels warble jocund notes	M
There every herd by sad experience knows	N
How wing'd with fate their elf shot arrows fly	O
When the sick ewe her summer food forgoes	N
Or stretch'd on earth the heart smit heifers lie	O
Such airy beings awe th' untutor'd swain	P
Nor thou though learn'd his homelier thoughts neglect	Q
Let thy sweet muse the rural faith sustain	P
These are the themes of simple sure effect	Q
That add new conquests to her boundless reign	P
And fill with double force her heart commanding strain	P
	-
Ev'n yet preserv'd how often may'st thou hear	R
Where to the pole the Boreal mountains run	S
Taught by the father to his list'ning son	S
Strange lays whose power had charm'd a Spenser's ear	R
At ev'ry pause before thy mind possest	Q
Old Runic bards shall seem to rise around	Q
With uncouth lyres in many coloured vest	Q
Their matted hair with boughs fantastic crown'd	Q
Whether thou bidd'st the well taught hind repeat	Q
The choral dirge that mourns some chieftain brave	T
When ev'ry shrieking maid her bosom beat	Q
And strew'd with choicest herbs his scented grave	T
Or whether sitting in the shepherd's shiel	U
Thou hear'st some sounding tale of war's alarms	V
When at the bugle's call with fire and steel	U
The sturdy clans pour'd forth their bony swarms	W
And hostile brothers met to prove each other's arms	V
	-
'Tis thine to sing how framing hideous spells	X
In Sky's lone isle the gifted wizard seer	R
Lodged in the wintry cave with fate's fell spear	Y
Or in the depth of Uist's dark forest dwells	X
How they whose sight such dreary dreams engross	Z
With their own visions oft astonish'd droop	A2
When o'er the wat'ry strath or quaggy moss	B2
They see the gliding ghosts unbodied troop	A2
Or if in sports or on the festive green	C2
Their piercing glance some fated youth descry	Y
Who now perhaps in lusty vigour seen	C2
And rosy health shall soon lamented die	Q
For them the viewless forms of air obey	B
Their bidding heed and at their beck repair	Y
They know what spirit brews the stormful day	B
And heartless oft like moody madness stare	Y
To see the phantom train their secret work prepare	Y
	-
Twenty five lines in this section are missing from available	D2
manuscripts	E2
	-
What though far off from some dark dell espied	B
His glimm'ring mazes cheer th' excursive sight	B
Yet turn ye wand'rers turn your steps aside	B
Nor trust the guidance of that faithless light	B
For watchful lurking 'mid th' unrustling reed	B
At those mirk hours the wily monster lies	F2
And listens oft to hear the passing steed	B
And frequent round him rolls his sullen eyes	F2
If chance his savage wrath may some weak wretch surprise	F2
	-
Ah luckless swain o'er all unblest indeed	B
Whom late bewilder'd in the dank dark fen	G2
Far from his flocks and smoking hamlet then	G2
To that sad spot his wayward fate shall lead	B
On him enrag'd the fiend in angry mood	B
Shall never look with pity's kind concern	H2
But instant furious raise the whelming flood	B
O'er its drown'd bank forbidding all return	H2
Or if he meditate his wish'd escape	I2
To some dim hill that seems uprising near	Y
To his faint eye the grim and grisly shape	I2
In all its terrors clad shall wild appear	Y
Meantime the wat'ry surge shall round him rise	F2
Pour'd sudden forth from ev'ry swelling source	J2
What now remains but tears and hopeless sighs	F2
His fear shook limbs have lost their youthly force	J2
And down the waves he floats a pale and breathless corse	J2
	-
For him in vain his anxious wife shall wait	B
Or wander forth to meet him on his way	B
For him in vain at to fall of the day	B
His babes shall linger at th' unclosing gate	B
Ah ne'er shall he return Alone if night	B
Her travell'd limbs in broken slumbers steep	K2
With drooping willows dress'd his mournful sprite	B
Shall visit sad perchance her silent sleep	K2
Then he perhaps with moist and wat'ry hand	B
Shall fondly seem to press her shudd'ring cheek	L2
And with his blue swoln face before her stand	B
And shiv'ring cold these piteous accents speak	L2
Pursue dear wife thy daily toils pursue	M2
At dawn or dusk industrious as before	Y
Nor e'er of me one hapless thought renew	M2
While I lie welt'ring on the osier'd shore	Y
Drown'd by the kelpie's wrath nor e'er shall aid thee more	Y
	-
Unbounded is thy range with varied style	N2
Thy Muse may like those feath'ry tribes which spring	O2
From their rude rocks extend her skirting wing	O2
Round the moist marge of each cold Hebrid isle	N2
To that hoar pile which still its ruin shows	N
In whose small vaults a pigmy folk is found	B
Whose bones the delver with his spade upthrows	N
And culls them wond'ring from the hallow'd ground	B
Or thither where beneath the show'ry west	B
The mighty kings of three fair realms are laid	B
Once foes perhaps together now they rest	B
No slaves revere them and no wars invade	B
Yet frequent now at midnight's solemn hour	Y
The rifted mounds their yawning cells unfold	B
And forth the monarchs stalk with sov'reign pow'r	Y
In pageant robes and wreath'd with sheeny gold	B
And on their twilight tombs aerial council hold	B
	-
But O o'er all forget not Kilda's race	N
On whose bleak rocks which brave the wasting tides	N
Fair Nature's daughter Virtue yet abides	N
Go just as they their blameless manners trace	N
Then to my ear transmit some gentle song	A
Of those whose lives are yet sincere and plain	P
Their bounded walks the rugged cliffs along	A
And all their prospect but the wintry main	P
With sparing temp'rance at the needful time	P2
They drain the sainted spring or hunger prest	B
Along th' Atlantic rock undreading climb	P2
And of its eggs despoil the solan's nest	B
Thus blest in primal innocence they live	Q2
Suffic'd and happy with that frugal fare	Y
Which tasteful toil and hourly danger give	R2
Hard is their shallow soil and bleak and bare	Y
Nor ever vernal bee was heard to murmur there	Y
	-
Nor need'st thou blush that such false themes engage	S2
Thy gentle mind of fairer stores possest	B
For not alone they touch the village breast	B
But fill'd in elder time th' historic page	S2
There Shakespeare's self with ev'ry garland crown'd	B
Flew to those fairy climes his fancy sheen	C2
In musing hour his wayward sisters found	B
And with their terrors drest the magic scene	C2
From them he sung when 'mid his bold design	T2
Before the Scot afflicted and aghast	B
The shadowy kings of Banquo's fated line	T2
Through the dark cave in gleamy pageant pass'd	B
Proceed nor quit the tales which simply told	B
Could once so well my answ'ring bosom pierce	N
Proceed in forceful sounds and colours bold	B
The native legends of thy land rehearse	N
To such adapt thy lyre and suit thy powerful verse	N
	-
In scenes like these which daring to depart	B
From sober truth are still to nature true	M2
And call forth fresh delight to Fancy's view	M2
Th' heroic muse employ'd her Tasso's art	B
How have I trembled when at Tancred's stroke	U2
Its gushing blood the gaping cypress pour'd	B
When each live plant with mortal accents spoke	U2
And the wild blast upheav'd the vanish'd sword	B
How have I sat when pip'd the pensive wind	B
To hear his harp by British Fairfax strung	V2
Prevailing poet whose undoubting mind	B
Believ'd the magic wonders which he sung	V2
Hence at each sound imagination glows	N
Hence at each picture vivid life starts here	Y
Hence his warm lay with softest sweetness flows	N
Melting its flows pure num'rous strong and clear	Y
And fills th' impassion'd heart and wins the harmonious ear	Y
	-
All hail ye scenes that o'er my soul prevail	G
Ye spacious friths and lakes which far away	B
Are by smooth Annan fill'd or past'ral Tay	B
Or Don's romantic springs at distance hail	G
The time shall come when I perhaps may tread	B
Your lowly glens o'erhung with spreading broom	W2
Or o'er your stretching heaths by fancy led	B
Or o'er your mountains creep in awful gloom	W2
Then will I dress once more the faded bow'r	Y
Where Jonson sat in Drummond's classic shade	B
Or crop from Tiviot's dale each lyric flower	Y
And mourn on Yarrow's banks where Willy's laid	B
Meantime ye Pow'rs that on the plains which bore	Y
The cordial youth on Lothian's plains attend	B
Where'er he dwell on hill or lowly muir	Y
To him I lose your kind protection lend	B
And touch'd with love like mine preserve my absent friend	B