The Complete Poetical Works of Sir Walter Scott (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1900 edition. Excerpt: ...will be found the peculiarities of this species of composition; and before joining the outcry against the vitiated taste that fosters and encourages it, the justice and grounds of it ought to be made perfectly apparent. If the want of sieges and battles and great military evolutions, in our poetry, is complained of, let us reflect that the campaigns and heroes of our days are perpetuated in a record that neither requires nor admits of the aid of fiction; and if the complaint refers to the inferiority of our bards, let us pay a just tribute to their modesty, limiting them, as it does, to subjects which, however indifferently treated, have still the interest and charm of novelty, and which thus prevents them from adding insipidity to their other more insuperable defects. THE BRIDAL OF TRIERMAIN OR THE VALE OF SAINT JOHN A LOVER'S TALE INTRODUCTION i Cove, Lucy while 't is morning hour The woodland brook we needs must pass; So ere the sun assume his power We shelter in our poplar bower, Where dew lies long upon the flower, / Though vanished from the velvet grass. Curbing the stream, this stony ridge May serve us for a sylvan bridge; For here compelled to disunite, Round petty isles the runnels glide, 10 And chafing off their puny spite, The shallow murmurers waste their might, Yielding to footstep free and light A dry-shod pass from side to side. Nay, why this hesitating pause? And, Lucy, as thy step withdraws, Why sidelong eye the streamlet's brim? Titania's foot without a slip, Like thine, though timid, light, and slim, From stone to stone might safely trip, 20 Nor risk the glow-worm clasp to dip That binds her slipper's silken rim. Or trust thy lover's strength; nor fear That this same stalwart arm of mine, Which could yon oak's prone...