Like one awakening from a trance,
        She met the shock of[1] Lochlin’s lance;
        On her rude invader foe
        Return’d an hundred fold the blow,
        Drove the taunting spoiler home;
          Mournful thence she took her way
        To do observance at the tomb
          Where the son of Douglas lay.

        Round about the tomb did go
        In solemn state and order slow,
        Silent pace, and black attire,
        Earl, or Knight, or good Esquire;
        Whoe’er by deeds of valour done
        In battle had high honours won;
        Whoe’er in their pure veins could trace
        The blood of Douglas’ noble race.

        With them the flower of minstrels came,
        And to their cunning harps did frame
        In doleful numbers piercing rhymes,
        Such strains as in the older times
        Had sooth’d the spirit of Fingal,
        Echoing thro’ his father’s hall.

        “Scottish maidens, drop a tear
        O’er the beauteous Hero’s bier! 
        Brave youth, and comely ’bove compare,
        All golden shone his burnish’d hair;
        Valour and smiling courtesy
        Play’d in the sun-beams of his eye. 
        Clos’d are those eyes that shone so fair,
        And stain’d with blood his yellow hair. 
        Scottish maidens, drop a tear
        O’er the beauteous Hero’s bier!”

        “Not a tear, I charge you, shed
        For the false Glenalvon dead;
        Unpitied let Glenalvon lie,
        Foul stain to arms and chivalry!”

        “Behind his back the traitor came,
        And Douglas died without his fame. 
        Young light of Scotland early spent,
        Thy country thee shall long lament;
        And oft to after-times shall tell,
        In Hope’s sweet prime my Hero fell.”

[Footnote 1:  Denmark.]

TO CHARLES LLOYD

An Unexpected Visitor

(January, 1797.  Text of 1818)

Alone, obscure, without a friend,
A cheerless, solitary thing,
Why seeks, my Lloyd, the stranger out? 
What offering can the stranger bring

Of social scenes, home-bred delights,
That him in aught compensate may
For Stowey’s pleasant winter nights,
For loves and friendships far away?

        In brief oblivion to forego
          Friends, such as thine, so justly dear,
        And be awhile with me content
          To stay, a kindly loiterer, here: 

        For this a gleam of random joy
          Hath flush’d my unaccustom’d cheek;
        And, with an o’er-charg’d bursting heart,
          I feel the thanks I cannot speak.

        Oh! sweet are all the Muses’ lays,
          And sweet the charm of matin bird;
        ’Twas long since these estranged ears
          The sweeter voice of friend had heard.