Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry.
Volume VIII. National Spirit. 1904. | | | | I. Patriotism | | Scotland | | Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832) |
| | From “The Lay of the Last Minstrel,” Canto VI. |
|
O CALEDONIA! stern and wild, | |
| Meet nurse for a poetic child! | |
| Land of brown heath and shaggy wood, | |
| Land of the mountain and the flood, | |
| Land of my sires! what mortal hand | 5 |
| Can e’er untie the filial band | |
| That knits me to thy rugged strand? | |
| Still, as I view each well-known scene, | |
| Think what is now, and what hath been, | |
| Seems, as to me, of all bereft, | 10 |
| Sole friends thy woods and streams were left; | |
| And thus I love them better still, | |
| Even in extremity of ill. | |
| By Yarrow’s stream still let me stray, | |
| Though none should guide my feeble way; | 15 |
| Still feel the breeze down Ettrick break, | |
| Although it chilled my withered cheek; | |
| Still lay my head by Teviot stone, | |
| Though there, forgotten and alone, | |
| The bard may draw his parting groan. | 20 | | |
|
|
|
