The Lady of the Lake eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 305 pages of information about The Lady of the Lake.

The Lady of the Lake eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 305 pages of information about The Lady of the Lake.
But still the Douglas is the theme? 
I’ll dream no more,—­ by manly mind
Not even in sleep is will resigned. 
My midnight orisons said o’er,
I’ll turn to rest, and dream no more.’ 
His midnight orisons he told,
A prayer with every bead of gold,
Consigned to heaven his cares and woes,
And sunk in undisturbed repose,
Until the heath-cock shrilly crew,
And morning dawned on Benvenue.

Cantosecond.

The Island.

I.

At morn the black-cock trims his jetty wing,
     ’T is morning prompts the linnet’s blithest lay,
All Nature’s children feel the matin spring
     Of life reviving, with reviving day;
And while yon little bark glides down the bay,
     Wafting the stranger on his way again,
Morn’s genial influence roused a minstrel gray,
     And sweetly o’er the lake was heard thy strain,
Mixed with the sounding harp, O white-haired Allan-bane!

II.

Song.

‘Not faster yonder rowers’ might
     Flings from their oars the spray,
Not faster yonder rippling bright,
That tracks the shallop’s course in light,
     Melts in the lake away,
Than men from memory erase
The benefits of former days;
Then, stranger, go! good speed the while,
Nor think again of the lonely isle.

’High place to thee in royal court,
     High place in battled line,
Good hawk and hound for sylvan sport! 
Where beauty sees the brave resort,
     The honored meed be thine! 
True be thy sword, thy friend sincere,
Thy lady constant, kind, and dear,
And lost in love’s and friendship’s smile
Be memory of the lonely isle!

III.

Song Continued.

’But if beneath yon southern sky
     A plaided stranger roam,
Whose drooping crest and stifled sigh,
And sunken cheek and heavy eye,
     Pine for his Highland home;
Then, warrior, then be thine to show
The care that soothes a wanderer’s woe;
Remember then thy hap erewhile,
A stranger in the lonely isle.

’Or if on life’s uncertain main
     Mishap shall mar thy sail;
If faithful, wise, and brave in vain,
Woe, want, and exile thou sustain
     Beneath the fickle gale;
Waste not a sigh on fortune changed,
On thankless courts, or friends estranged,
But come where kindred worth shall smile,
To greet thee in the lonely isle.’

IV.

As died the sounds upon the tide,
The shallop reached the mainland side,
And ere his onward way he took,
The stranger cast a lingering look,
Where easily his eye might reach
The Harper on the islet beach,
Reclined against a blighted tree,
As wasted, gray, and worn as he. 

Copyrights
Project Gutenberg
The Lady of the Lake from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.