On Leaving the North Highlands.
Once more my northern way I trace,1
Once more review each well-known place,2
Reverting pensive as I go,3
To scenes of former joy or woe,4
To sanguine hopes too fondly priz’d,5
To fears too surely realiz’d,6
To fancy’s dreams and passion’s strife,7
And all that clouds or brightens life ;8
Yet, while I feel th’ inspiring gale,9
Well pleas’d, I bid those mountains hail.10
Ethernal barriers of the Land,11
In sullen majesty you stand,12
As when the Roman Eagles cower’d,13
While o’er the invading ranks you lower’d ;14
As when the Saxon foe gave way15
Before the natives fierce array ;16
When all your echoes joy’d to hail17
The triump of the free-born Gael.18
Advancing thro’ the rugged strait,19
Where many a warrior met his fate ;20
At the dim visionary hour21
When long remember’d tales have pow’r22
To people air with dusky hosts,23
The fleeting forms of warriors’ ghosts,24
As on their misty wreaths they sail,25
I bid the kindered phantoms hail.26
While wandering o’er the moonlight heath,27
Once more I taste its freshening breath,28
Or see thro’ clouds the brightening gleams,29
Or hear the rush of mountain’s streams,30
Whose wat’ry music as they fall,31
Does youth with all its dreams recall,32
Its vanish’d joys I cease to wail,33
While thus my wonted haunts I hail.34
But why this pause ’twixt woe and fear?35
And why th’ involuntary tear,36
The frequent throb, the unconscious start,37
The load that presses down the heart ?38
While memory, too much wak’d, explores39
With backward view her hoarded stores ; 40
The downward path once more I hail,41
That leads me to the accustom’d vale.42
******
And now the pilgrimage is o’er,43
That long-lov’d vale I see no more ;44
The cluster’d cottages around,45
Whose hearts with ties of kindness bound,46
Were wont, with sympathetic glow,47
To share the mutual weal or woe.48
Those low abodes so dear to me,49
In distance lost, no more I see ;50
Ye faithful courteous race, to you51
My heart unwilling bids adieu.52
Your meads so rich in summer flowers,53
Your fragrant shrubs, your birchen bowers,54
Your skies with glancing meteors streaming,55
Your lakes in placid beauty gleaming,56
Your aerial mists that meet the morning,57
With bright’ning wreaths the rocks adorning ;58
To all that wont to cheer my view,59
And soothe my heart, I bid adieu.60
Yes ! humble friends, your cordial greeting,61
Your bright’ning looks that hail’d our meet
ing,62
ing,62
Your gen’rous minds, your untaught sense,63
Your native glowing eloquence ;64
The graces of your Celtic tongue,65
In which the loftiest lays were sung,66
In which the strains that softer flow,67
Breathe all the soul of tender woe ;68
My earliest feelings all renew,69
While thus I bid your Cots adieu.70
Where wild woods sigh and torrents rave,71
And Ness, with pure transparent wave,72
Soft murmurs near a lonely grave ;73
There beauty, youth, and talent sleeps,74
Her watch there faithful sorrow keeps,75
There every gentler virtue weeps :76
That hallow’d tomb a wreath shall bind77
Of sweetest flowers of rarest kind,78
As fair and spotless as her mind ; 79
Thick gathering mists obscure my view,80
Once more, dear sainted friend, adieu.81