I promised thee a sister-tale Of man's perfidious cruelty; Come, then, and hear what cruel wrong Coleridge. KILMENY. Bonny Kilmeny gaed up the glen; But lang may her minny look o'er the wa', Lang the laird of Duneira blame, And lang, lang greet or Kilmeny come hame! When many a day had come and fled, When grief grew calm, and hope was dead, When mass for Kilmeny's soul had been sung, When the bedes-man had prayed, and the dead-bell run When the fringe was red on the westlin hill, The reek o' the cot hung over the plain, 6 Kilmeny, Kilmeny, where have you been? Kilmeny looked up with a lovely grace, Kilmeny had been where the cock never crew, Where the rain never fell, and the wind never blew : A land of love, and a land of light, In yon green-wood there is a waik, And in that waik there is a wene, And in that wene there is a maike, That neither has flesh, blood, nor bane ; And down in yon green-wood he walks his lane. In that green wene Kilmeny lay, Her bosom happed wi' the flowerets gay; She 'wakened on a couch of the silk sae slim, All striped wi' the bars of the rainbow's rim; Who erst had travelled mortal life; And aye they smiled, and 'gan to speer, Lang have I journeyed the world wide,' A meek and reverend fere replied; 'Baith night and day I have watched the fair, Eident a thousand years and mair. Yes, I have watched o'er ilk degree, As the spirits that sojourn this countrye: I have brought her away frae the snares of men, That sin or death she never may ken. They clasped her waist and her hands sae fair, They kissed her cheek, and they kemed her hair, And round came many a blooming fere, 6 Saying, Bonny Kilmeny, ye're welcome here! Women are freed of the littand scorn: O, blessed be the day Kilmeny was born! Now shall it ken what a woman may be ! Many a lang year through the world we've gane, For it's they who nurice the immortal mind. 'We have watched their steps as the dawning shone, And deep in the green-wood walks alone; By lily bower and silken bed, The viewless tears have o'er them shed; Have soothed their ardent minds to sleep, Or left the couch of love to weep. We have seen! we have seen! but the time must come, And the angels will weep at the day of doom! O, would the fairest of mortal kind Aye keep the holy truths in mind, VOL. I. |