| |
| “O, TELL me, Harper, wherefore flow | |
| Thy wayward notes of wail and woe | |
| Far down the desert of Glencoe, | |
| Where none may list their melody? | |
| Say, harp’st thou to the mists that fly, | 5 |
| Or to the dun deer glancing by, | |
| Or to the eagle that from high | |
| Screams chorus to thy minstrelsy?” | |
| |
| “No, not to these, for they have rest,— | |
| The mist-wreath has the mountain crest, | 10 |
| The stag his lair, the erne her nest, | |
| Abode of lone security. | |
| But those for whom I pour the lay, | |
| Not wildwood deep, nor mountain gray, | |
| Not this deep dell, that shrouds from day, | 15 |
| Could screen from treach’rous cruelty. | |
| |
| “Their flag was furled, and mute their drum, | |
| The very household dogs were dumb, | |
| Unwont to bay at guests that come | |
| In guise of hospitality. | 20 |
| His blithest notes the piper plied, | |
| Her gayest snood the maiden tied, | |
| The dame her distaff flung aside, | |
| To tend her kindly housewifery. | |
| |
| “The hand that mingled in the meal | 25 |
| At midnight drew the felon steel, | |
| And gave the host’s kind breast to feel | |
| Meed for his hospitality! | |
| The friendly hearth which warmed that hand | |
| At midnight armed it with the brand, | 30 |
| That bade destruction’s flames expand | |
| Their red and fearful blazonry. | |
| |
| “Then woman’s shriek was heard in vain, | |
| Nor infancy’s unpitied plain, | |
| More than the warrior’s groan, could gain | 35 |
| Respite from ruthless butchery! | |
| The winter wind that whistled shrill, | |
| The snows that night that cloaked the hill, | |
| Though wild and pitiless, had still | |
| Far more than Southern clemency. | 40 |
| |
| “Long have my harp’s best notes been gone, | |
| Few are its strings, and faint their tone, | |
| They can but sound in desert lone | |
| Their gray-haired master’s misery. | |
| Were each gray hair a minstrel string, | 45 |
| Each chord should imprecations fling, | |
| Till startled Scotland loud should ring, | |
| ‘Revenge for blood and treachery!’” | |
| |
