"ALL NATURE THUS TENDS TO DECAY, AND TO DROP AS THE LEAVES FROM THE TREE;
DWELLER IN HEAVEN HIGH, RULER BELOW,-(JAMES HOGG)
And these roses, the fairest that ever were seen?—
Kilmeny, Kilmeny, where have you been?"
Kilmeny looked up with a lovely grace,
But nae smile was seen on Kilmeny's face;
As still was her look, and as still was her ee,
As the stillness that lay on the emerant lea,
Or the mist that sleeps on a waveless sea.
For Kilmeny had been she ken'd not where,
And Kilmeny had seen what she could not declare;
Kilmeny had been where the cock never crew,
Where the rain never fell, and the wind never blew ;
But it seemed as the harp of the sky had rung,
And the airs of heaven played round her tongue,
When she spake of the lovely forms she had seen,
And a land where sin had never been......
In yon greenwood there is a waik,
And in that waik there is a wene,
And in that wene there is a maike,
That neither has flesh, nor blood, nor bane;
And down in yon greenwood he walks his lane!
In that green wene Kilmeny lay,
Her bosom hap'd wi' the flowerets gay;
But the air was soft, and the silence deep,
And bonny Kilmeny fell sound asleep.
She kenned nae mair, nor opened her ee,
Till waked by the hymns of a fair countrye.
She woke on a couch of the silk sae slim,
All striped wi' the bars of the rainbow's rim;
And lovely beings round were rife,
Who erst had travelled mortal life......
They clasped her waist and her hands sae fair,
They kissed her cheek, and they kemed her hair,
FAIN WOULD I KNOW THEE, YET TREMBLE TO KNOW."-HOGG.
AND MAN, JUST THE FLOWER OF A DAY, HOW LONG, LONG HIS WINTER WILL BE!"-HOGG.
"YOUTH, WITH ITS VISIONS SO GAY, DEPARTS LIKE A DREAM OF THE MIND;
66 BE MINE THE FAITH THAT SPURNS THE BOURN OF TIME;
And round came many a blooming fere,
Saying, "Bonny Kilmeny, ye're welcome here!"
They lifted Kilmeny, they led her away,
And she walked in the light of a sunless day;
The sky was a dome of crystal bright,
The fountain of vision, and fountain of light;
The emerant fields were of dazzling glow,
And the flowers of everlasting blow.
Then deep in the stream her body they laid,
That her youth and beauty never might fade ;
And they smiled on heaven, when they saw her lie
In the stream of life that wandered by.
And she heard a song, she heard it sung,
She ken'd not where, but sae sweetly it rung,
It fell on her ear like a dream of the morn :-
"O! blest be the day Kilmeny was born!
Now shall the land of the spirits see,
Now shall it ken what a woman may be !
The sun that shines on the world sae bright,
A borrowed gleid from the fountain of light;
And the moon that sleeks the sky sae dun,
Like a gouden bow, or a beamless sun,
Shall wear away, and be seen nae mair,
And the angels shall miss them travelling the air.
But lang, lang after baith night and day,
When the sun and the world have fled away,
When the sinner has gone to his waesome doom,
Kilmeny shall smile in eternal bloom!"......
Then Kilmeny begged again to see
The friends she had left in her ain countrye,
To tell of the place where she had been,
And the glories that lay in the land unseen..............
THE SOUL WHOSE EYE CAN FUTURE Glories see!"-HOGG.
TO PLEASURE AND PASSION A PREY, IT OFTEN LEAVES SORROW BEHIND."-HOGG.
"THE ECHOING ROCK, THE RUSHING FLOOD, THE CATARACT'S SWELL, THE MOANING WOOD,
BE MINE TO SING OF VISIONS THAT HAVE BEEN,
With distant music, soft and deep,
They lulled Kilmeny sound asleep;
And when she awakened she lay her lane,
All happed with flowers in the greenwood wene.
When seven lang years had come and fled;
When grief was calm, and hope was dead;
When scarce was remembered Kilmeny's name,
Late, late in a gloamin Kilmeny came hame!
And O, her beauty was fair to see,
But still and steadfast was her ee!
Such beauty bard may never declare,
For there was no pride nor passion there;
And the soft desire of a maiden's een
In that mild face could never be seen.
Her seymar was the lily flower,
And her cheek the moss-rose in the shower;
And her voice like the distant melodye,
That floats along the twilight sea.
But she loved to raike the lanely glen,
And keep afar frae the haunts of men,
Her holy hymns unheard to sing,
To suck the flowers, and drink the spring.
But wherever her peaceful form appeared,
The wild beasts of the hill were cheered;
The wolf played blythely round the field,
The lordly byson lowed and kneeled,
The dun deer wooed with manner bland,
And cowered aneath her lily hand.
And when at eve the woodlands rung
When hymns of other worlds she sung,
In ecstasy of sweet devotion,
O, then the glen was all in motion!
The wild beasts of the forest came,
Broke from their boughts and faulds the tame,
AND CHERISH HOPE OF VISIONS YET TO BE."-HOGG.
ALL THESE HAVE LEFT WITHIN THIS HEART A FEELING TONGUE CAN NE'ER IMPART."-HOGG.
"THE HEART UNALTERED IN ITS MOOD, THAT JOYS ALONE IN DOING GOOD,-(JAMES HOGG)
'SORE FOR THE selfishness OF MEN I WAIL,—(HOGG)
And goved around, charmed and amazed;
Even the dull cattle crooned and gazed,
And murmured, and looked with anxious pain,
For something the mystery to explain.
The buzzard came with the throstle-cock;
The corby left her houf in the rock;
The blackbird alang wi' the eagle flew ;
The hind came tripping o'er the dew;
The wolf and the kid their raike began,
And the tod, and the lamb, and the leveret ran;
The hawk and the hern attour them hung,
And the merle and the mavis forhooyed their young;
And all in a peaceful ring were hurled :-
It was like an eve in a sinless world!
THE JOYS WITHIN SUCH HEART THAT BURN, NO LOSS CAN QUENCH, NOR TIME O'ERTURN."-HOGG.
HE second night, when the new moon set,
O'er the roaring sea we flew;
The cockle-shell our trusty bark,
Our sails of the green sea rue.
And the bauld winds blew, and the fire-flaughts flew,
And the sea ran to the sky;
And the thunder it growled, and the sea-dogs howled,
'Kilmeny " has furnished a title and a theme for a picturesque novel by William Black.
SCARCE OTHER MOTIVES HUMAN ACTION GUIDE."-HOGG.
"HOW FEARFUL TO AFFECTION'S VIEW, THE BLUSH, MORE BRIGHT THAN BEAUTY'S HUE,
THEREFORE NO MORE LET DOUBTS THY MIND ENTHRAL,—(HOGG)
And aye we mounted the sea-green hills
While we brushed through the clouds of the heaven,
Than soused down right like the star shot light
From the lift's blue casement driven.
But our tackle stood, and our bark was good,
And so pang was our pearly prow,
When we could not spiel the brow of the waves
We needilit them through below.
As fast as the hail, as fast as the gale,
As fast as the midnight leme,
We bored the breast of the bursting swell,
Or fluffit i' the floating faem.
And when to the Norroway shore we wan,
We mounted our steeds of the wind;
And we splashed the flood, and we darned the wood,
And we left the shower behind.
Fleet is the roe on the green Lomond,
And swift is the cowering grewe;
The reindeer dun can eithly run
When the hounds and the horns pursue.
But neither the roe, nor the reindeer dun,
The hind, nor the cowering grewe,
Could fly over mountain, moor, and dale,
As our braw steeds they flew.
The dales were deep, and the Doffrines steep,
And we rose to the skies ee-bree;
White, white was our road, that was never trode
O'er the snows of eternity!
THROUGH NATure's rage thou see'st a GOD IN ALL!"-J. HOGG.
WHERE, SAD AS CYPRESS WREATH, THE ROSE AMID CONSUMPTION'S RUIN GLOWS!"-HOGG.
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