IV The kirk was deck'd at morning-tide, The priest and bridegroom wait the bride, They sought her baith by bower and ha' The ladie was not seen! She's o'er the Border, and awa' Wi' Jock of Hazeldean. THE RECOLLECTION WE wander'd to the pine forest The whispering waves were half asleep, It seem'd as if the hour were one Which scatter'd from above the sun We paused amid the pines that stood Tortured by storms to shapes as rude And soothed, by every azure breath Now all the tree-tops lay asleep Like green waves on the sea, As still as in the silent deep The ocean woods may be. SCOTT. How calm it was!-the silence there The breath of peace we drew To momentary peace it bound Our mortal nature's strife. And still, I felt, the centre of The magic circle there Was one fair form that fill'd with love We paused beside the pools that lie Which in the dark earth lay, And purer than the day In which the lovely forests grew As in the upper air, More perfect both in shape and hue Than any spreading there. There lay the glade, the neighbouring lawn, And through the dark-green wood The white sun twinkling like the dawn Out of a speckled cloud. Sweet views which in our world above Can never well be seen Were imaged by the water's love Of that fair forest green; And all was interfused beneath An atmosphere without a breath, Like one beloved, the scene had lent With more than truth exprest; Like an unwelcome thought Blots one dear image out. Though Thou art ever fair and kind, And forests ever green, Less oft is peace in Shelley's mind Than calm in waters seen. P. B. SHELLEY. AULD ROBIN GRAY WHEN the sheep are in the fauld, and the kye at hame, The waes o' my heart fa' in showers frae my e’e, While my gudeman lies sound by me. Young Jamie lo'ed me weel, and sought me for his bride; But saving a croun he had naething else beside: To make the croun a pund, young Jamie gaed to sea; And the croun and the pund were baith for me. He hadna been awa' a week but only twa, When my father brak his arm, and the cow was stown awa'; My mother she fell sick, and my Jamie at the sea And auld Robin Gray came a-courtin' me. My father couldna work, and my mother couldna spin ; Auld Rob maintain'd them baith, and wi' tears in his e'e M My heart it said nay; I look'd for Jamie back; But the wind it blew high, and the ship it was a wrack His ship it was a wrack-why didna Jamie dee, My father urgit sair: my mother didna speak; But she look'd in my face till my heart was like to break: I hadna been a wife a week but only four, -O sair, sair did we greet, and muckle did we say; I gang like a ghaist, and I carena to spin; I daurna think on Jamie, for that wad be a sin; LADY A. LINDSAY. WILLIE DROWNED IN YARROW Down in yon garden sweet and gay I heard a fair maid sighing say, 'Willie's rare, and Willie's fair, And Willie's wondrous bonny; 'O gentle wind, that bloweth south, 'O tell sweet Willie to come doun And see the birds on ilka bush And leaves around them hinging 'The lav'rock there, wi' her white breast There's sport eneuch for gentlemen |