| |
| HEAR what Highland Nora said,— | |
| ‘The Earlie’s son I will not wed, | |
| Should all the race of nature die, | |
| And none be left but he and I. | |
| For all the gold, for all the gear, | 5 |
| And all the lands both far and near, | |
| That ever valour lost or won, | |
| I would not wed the Earlie’s son.’ | |
| |
| ‘A maiden’s vows,’ old Callum spoke, | |
| ‘Are lightly made, and lightly broke; | 10 |
| The heather on the mountain’s height | |
| Begins to bloom in purple light; | |
| The frost-wind soon shall sweep away | |
| That lustre deep from glen and brae; | |
| Yet Nora, ere its bloom be gone, | 15 |
| May blithely wed the Earlie’s son.’— | |
| |
| ‘The swan,’ she said, ‘the lake’s clear breast | |
| May barter for the eagle’s nest; | |
| The Awe’s fierce stream may backward turn, | |
| Ben-Cruaichan fall, and crush Kilchurn; | 20 |
| Our kilted clans, when blood is high, | |
| Before their foes may turn and fly; | |
| But I, were all these marvels done, | |
| Would never wed the Earlie’s son.’ | |
| |
| Still in the water-lily’s shade | 25 |
| Her wonted nest the wild-swan made; | |
| Ben-Cruaichan stands as fast as ever, | |
| Still downward foams the Awe’s swift river; | |
| To shun the clash of foeman’s steel, | |
| No highland brogue has turn’d the heel: | 30 |
| But Nora’s heart is lost and won, | |
| —She’s wedded to the Earlie’s son! | |
| |
