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

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,

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;

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.