Lays of the Highlands and Islands (Paperback)

Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: SONNETS. THE TOURISTS. What brought them here across the briny pool, A motley train of high and low degree, Grave seniors, girls whose blue eyes flash with glee, White-collar'd priests, and boys uncaged from school ? I know not?happy if themselves can tell; No sights are here to trap the vulgar eye, No dome whose gilded cross invades the sky, No palace where wide-sceptred Csesars dwell. An old grey chapel on an old grey beach, Grey waste of rocks unpictured by a tree, And far as hungry vision's range can reach, The old grey mist upon the old grey sea: These shows for sense; but the deep truth behind They only know who read the mind with mind. THE ROYAL SAINT. Praise me no Csesars, Alexanders, all Who whet sharp swords to reap great names in story, Napoleons, Fredericks, men who fill the hall Of fame with echoes which the French call glory ! True glory he reap'd with his saintly band Who fled from pomp of courts and flash of spears, To win lost souls on this storm-batter'd strand, With loving venture, prayers, and precious tears. No herald shrill'd sharp fear his path before, No wasteful fire made deserts where he came, No trail of victories sign'd his march with gore, No dinsome triumph peal'd his dreaded name; But shod with peace, and wing'd with fervour, he Unlock'd all hearts; for Love gave him the key. THE LORD'S DAY IN IONA. Pure worshipper, who on this holy day Would'st shake thee free from soul-encrusting cares, And to the great Creator homage pay In some high fane most worthy of thy prayers, Go not where sculptured tower or pictured dome Invites the reeking city's jaded throngs, Some hoar old shrine of Rhine-land or of Rome, Where the dim aisle the languid hymn prolongs; Here ra...