Page:Oxford Book of English Verse 1250-1918.djvu/638

 JAMES HOGG

For there they were seen on their downward plain

A thousand times and a thousand again;

In winding lake and placid firth,

Little peaceful heavens in the bosom of earth.

Kilmeny sigh'd and seem'd to grieve,

For she found her heart to that land did cleave;

She saw the corn wave on the vale.

She saw the deer run down the dale;

She saw the plaid and the broad claymore,

And the brows that the badge of freedom bore;

And she thought site had seen the land before.

She saw a lady sit on a throne, The fairest that ever the sun shone on' A lion lick'd her hand of milk, And she held him in a leish of silk; And a Icifu' maiden stood at her knee, With a silver wand and melting e'e, Her sovereign shield till love stole in And poison'd all the fount within.

Then a gruff untoward bedesman came,

And hundit the lion on hib dame;

And the guardian maid wi' the dauntless e'e,

She dropped a tear, and left her knee,

And she saw till the queen frac the lion fled,

Till the bonniest flower of the world lay dead;

A coffin was set on a distant plain,

And she saw the red blood fall like rain;

Then bonnie Kilmeny *s heart grew sair,

And she turn'd away, and could look nae mair.

leifu'] lone, wistful.

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