Oh, Gilderoy? bethought we then When first in Roslin's lovely glen Your locks they glitter'd to the sheen, And graceful was the ribbon green Ah! little thought I to deplore Ye cruel, cruel, that combin'd A long adieu! but where shall fly When every mean and cruel eye Regards my woe with scorn. Yes! they will mock thy widow's tears, And hate thine orphan boy: Alas! his infant beauty wears Then will I seek the dreary mound, THE HARPER. On the green banks of Shannon, when Sheelah was N nigh, No blithe Irish lad was so happy as I'; No harp like my own could so cheerily play, When at last I was forced from my Sheelah to part, She said (while the sorrow was big at her heart), Oh! remember your Sheelah when far far away; And be kind, my dear Pat, to our poor dog Tray. Poor dog! he was faithful and kind, to be sure, And he constantly lov'd me although I was poor; When the sour-looking folks sent me heartless away, I had always a friend in my poor dog Tray. When the road was so dark, and the night was so cold, And Pat and his dog were grown weary and old, How snugly we slept in my old coat of grey, And he lick'd me for kindness....my poor dog Tray. Though my wallet was scant, I remember'd his case, Nor refus❜d my last crust to his pitiful face; But he died at my feet on a cold winter day, Where now shall I go, poor, forsaken, and blind? Can I find one to guide me, so faithful and kind? To my sweet native village, so far far away, I can never more return with my poor dog Tray. 12 ON VISITING A SCENE IN ARGYLESHIRE. At the silence of twilight's contemplative hour, I have mused in a sorrowful mood On the wind shaken weeds, that embosom the bower, Where the home of my forefathers stood. All ruin'd and wild is their roofless abode, And lonely the dark raven's sheltering tree, And travell'd by few is the grass cover'd road, Where the hunter of deer and the warrior trod, To his hills, that encircle the sea. Yet wandering, I found, on my ruinous walk, One rose of the wilderness left on its stalk, To mark where a garden had been: |