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AS I stood by yon roofless tower, | |
Where the wa-flower scents the dewy air, | |
Where the howlet mourns in her ivy bower, | |
And tells the midnight moon her care: | |
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The winds were laid, the air was still, | 5 |
The stars they shot alang the sky; | |
The fox was howling on the hill, | |
And the distant-echoing glens reply. | |
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The stream, adown its hazelly path, | |
Was rushing by the ruined was, | 10 |
Hasting to join the sweeping Nith, | |
Whose distant roaring swells and fas. | |
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The cauld blue north was streaming forth | |
Her lights, wi hissing eerie din; | |
Athort the lift they start and shift, | 15 |
Like fortunes favors, tint as win. | |
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By heedless chance I turned mine eyes, | |
And by the moonbeam shook to see | |
A stern and stalwart ghaist arise, | |
Attired as minstrels wont to be. | 20 |
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Had I a statue been o stane, | |
His daurin look had daunted me; | |
And on his bonnet graved was plain, | |
The sacred posyLibertie! | |
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