Works

Look now on that Adventurer who hath paid
His vows to Fortune; who, in cruel slight
Of virtuous hope, of liberty, and right,
Hath followed wheresoe'er a way was made...

The Text is taken from Motherwell's Minstrelsy, a similar version being given in Maidment's North Countrie Garland. A few alterations from the latter version are incorporated.
...

I

'But where do you go?' said the lady, while both sat under the yew,
And her eyes were alive in their depth, as the kraken beneath the sea-blue.

II
...

So gently in peace Alcibiades smiled,
While in battle he shone forth so terribly grand,
That the emblem they graved on his seal, was a child
With a thunderbolt placed in its innocent hand.
...

Lord, who shall bear that day, so dread, so splendid,
When we shall see thy Angel hovering o'er
This sinful world with hand to heaven extended,
And hear him swear by Thee that time's no more?[1]...

No eye beheld when William plunged
Young Edmund in the stream,
No human ear but William's heard
Young Edmund's drowning scream.

Submissive all the vassals own'd
The murderer for their Lord,...

Up to far Osteroe and Suderoe
The deep sea-floor lies strewn with Spanish wrecks,
O'er minted gold the fair-haired fishers go,
O'er sunken bravery of high carv'd decks.
...

And the just man trailed God's shining agent,
over a black mountain, in his giant track,
while a restless voice kept harrying his woman:
"It's not too late, you can still look back
...

Tune - "Louis, what reck I by thee."


I.

Louis, what reck I by thee,
Or Geordie on his ocean?
Dyvor, beggar loons to me
I reign in Jeannie's bosom.

II.
...

All were in league to capture Love
The rock, the stream, the tree;
The very Month was leader of
The whole conspiracy.

It led Love where wild waters met,
And tree hugged close to tree;...

I.

How soft is the moon on Glengariff,
The rocks seem to melt with the light:
Oh! would I were there with dear Fanny,
To tell her that love is as bright;
And nobly the sun of July...

'Tis wine that cheers the soul of man,
With subtle and seductive flow;
It warms the heart, as naught else can,
And banishes regret, and woe.

It keeps alive the flick'ring flame,...

Inscribed to the Right Honourable the Lady Elizabeth Germain.


Interdum tamen et tollit comoedia vocem.

HOR.


I sought a patroness, but sought in vain....

("Orph'e au bois du Caystre.")

[Bk. I. ii.]


Orpheus, through the hellward wood
Hurried, ere the eve-star glowed,
For the fauns' lugubrious hoots
Followed, hollow, from crook'd roots;...

La ragion meco si lamenta.


Reason laments and grieves full sore with me,
The while I hope by loving to be blest;
With precepts sound and true philosophy...

Love gives us copious potions of delight,
Of pain and ecstasy, and peace and care;
Love leads us upward, to the mountain height,
And, like an angel, stands beside us there;...

Sometimes my idle heart would roam
Far from its quiet happy nest,
To seek some other newer home,
Some unaccustomed Best:
But ere it spreads its foolish wings,...

O Love, thine empire is not dead,
Nor will we let thy worship go,
Although thine early flush be fled,
Thine ardent eyes more faintly glow,
And thy light wings be fallen slow...

Love, thou gayest fancy-weaver,
Heart-betrayer, soul-deceiver,
Come with all thy clinging kisses;
Bringing all thy beaming blisses;
It may serve the cynic's parts,
If he curse and if he scout thee,...

Love thou thy land, with love far-brought
From out the storied past, and used
Within the present, but transfused
Thro' future time by power of thought;

True love turn'd round on fixed poles,...