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Home  »  Poems of Places An Anthology in 31 Volumes  »  Lines Addressed to Ranald Macdonald, Esq., of Staffa

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Scotland: Vols. VI–VIII. 1876–79.

Staffa, the Island

Lines Addressed to Ranald Macdonald, Esq., of Staffa

By Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832)

STAFFA, sprung from high Macdonald,

Worthy branch of old Clan-Ranald!

Staffa! king of all kind fellows!

Well befall thy hills and valleys,

Lakes and inlets, deeps and shallows,—

Cliffs of darkness, caves of wonder,

Echoing the Atlantic thunder;

Mountains which the gray mist covers,

Where the chieftain spirit hovers,

Pausing while his pinions quiver,

Stretched to quit our land forever!

Each kind influence reign above thee!

Warmer heart, ’twixt this and Staffa

Beats not, than in heart of Staffa!