| |
| EDINA! Scotia’s darling seat! | |
| All hail thy palaces and towers, | |
| Where once beneath a monarch’s feet | |
| Sat Legislation’s sovereign powers! | |
| From marking wildly scattered flowers, | 5 |
| As on the banks of Ayr I strayed, | |
| And singing, lone, the lingering hours, | |
| I shelter in thy honored shade. | |
| |
| Here wealth still swells the golden tide, | |
| As busy Trade his labor plies; | 10 |
| There Architecture’s noble pride | |
| Bids elegance and splendor rise; | |
| Here Justice, from her native skies, | |
| High wields her balance and her rod; | |
| There Learning, with his eagle eyes, | 15 |
| Seeks Science in her coy abode. | |
| |
| Thy sons, Edina! social, kind, | |
| With open arms the stranger hail; | |
| Their views enlarged, their liberal mind, | |
| Above the narrow, rural vale; | 20 |
| Attentive still to Sorrow’s wail, | |
| Or modest Merit’s silent claim; | |
| And never may their sources fail, | |
| And never envy blot their name! | |
| |
| Thy daughters bright thy walks adorn, | 25 |
| Gay as the gilded summer sky, | |
| Sweet as the dewy milk-white thorn, | |
| Dear as the raptured thrill of joy! | |
| Fair Burnet strikes the adoring eye, | |
| Heaven’s beauties on my fancy shine; | 30 |
| I see the Sire of Love on high, | |
| And own his work indeed divine! | |
| |
| There, watching high the least alarms, | |
| Thy rough, rude fortress gleams afar; | |
| Like some bold veteran, gray in arms, | 35 |
| And marked with many a seamy scar. | |
| The ponderous wall and massy bar, | |
| Grim-rising o’er the rugged rock, | |
| Have oft withstood assailing war, | |
| And oft repelled the invader’s shock. | 40 |
| |
| With awe-struck thought, and pitying tears, | |
| I view that noble, stately dome, | |
| Where Scotia’s kings of other years, | |
| Famed heroes! had their royal home. | |
| Alas, how changed the times to come! | 45 |
| Their royal name low in the dust! | |
| Their hapless race wild wandering roam, | |
| Though rigid law cries out, ’T was just! | |
| |
| Wild beats my heart to trace your steps, | |
| Whose ancestors, in days of yore, | 50 |
| Through hostile ranks and ruined gaps | |
| Old Scotia’s bloody lion bore. | |
| Even I who sing in rustic lore, | |
| Haply, my sires have left their shed, | |
| And faced grim danger’s loudest roar, | 55 |
| Bold-following where your fathers led! | |
| |
| Edina! Scotia’s darling seat! | |
| All hail thy palaces and towers, | |
| Where once beneath a monarch’s feet | |
| Sat Legislation’s sovereign powers! | 60 |
| From marking wildly scattered flowers, | |
| As on the banks of Ayr I strayed, | |
| And singing, lone, the lingering hours, | |
| I shelter in thy honored shade. | |
| |
