The aged Harper howsoe’er

       His only friend, his harp, was dear,

       Lik’d not to hear it rank’d so high

       Above his flowing poesy:

       Less lik’d he still that scornful jeer

       Mispris’d the land he lov’d so dear;

       High was the sound, as thus again

       The Bard resum’d his minstrel strain.

Canto VI

       Table of Contents

       I

      Breathes there the man, with soul so dead,

       Who never to himself hath said,

       This is my own, my native land!

       Whose heart hath ne’er within him burn’d,

       As home his footsteps he hath turn’d,

       From wandering on a foreign strand!

       If such there breathe, go, mark him well;

       For him no Minstrel raptures swell;

       High though his titles, proud his name,

       Boundless his wealth as wish can claim;

       Despite those titles, power, and pelf,

       The wretch, concentred all in self,

       Living, shall forfeit fair renown,

       And, doubly dying, shall go down

       To the vile dust, from whence he sprung,

       Unwept, unhonor’d, and unsung.

       II

      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 wellknown 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 chill my wither’d cheek:

       Still lay my head by Teviot Stone,

       Though there, forgotten and alone,

       The Bard may draw his parting groan.

       III

      Not scorn’d like me! to Branksome Hall

       The Minstrels came at festive call;

       Trooping they came, from near and far

       The jovial priests of mirth and war;

       Alike for feast and fight prepar’d,

       Battle and banquet both they shar’d.

       Of late, before each martial clan,

       They blew their death-note in the van,

       But now, for every merry mate,

       Rose the portcullis’ iron grate;

       They sound the pipe, they strike the string,

       They dance, they revel, and they sing,

       Till the rude turrets shake and ring.

       IV

      Me lists not at this tide declare

       The splendor of the spousal rite,

       How muster’d in the chapel fair

       Both maid and matron, squire and knight;

       Me lists not tell of owches rare,

       Of mantles green, and braided hair,

       And kirtles furr’d with miniver;

       What plumage wav’d the altar round,

       How spurs and ringing chainlets sound;

       And hard it were for bard to speak

       The changeful hue of Margaret’s cheek,

       That lovely hue which comes and flies

       As awe and shame alternate rise!

       V

      Some bards have sung the Ladye high

       Chapel or altar came not nigh;

       Nor durst the rites of spousal grace,

       So much she fear’d each holy place.

       False slanders these: I trust right well

       She wrought not by forbidden spell;

       For mighty words and signs have power

       O’er sprites in planetary hour:

       Yet scarce I praise their venturous part,

       Who tamper with such dangerous art.

       But this for faithful truth I say,

       The Ladye by the altar stood;

       Of sable velvet her array,

       And on her head a crimson hood

       With pearls embroider’d and entwin’d,

       Guarded with gold, with ermine lin’d;

       A merlin sat upon her wrist

       Held by a leash of silken twist.

       VI

      The spousal rites were ended soon:

       ‘Twas now the merry hour of noon

       And in the lofty arched hall

       Was spread the gorgeous festival.

       Steward and squire, with heedful haste,

       Marshall’d the rank of every guest;

       Pages, with