The lay of the last minstrel. With life and notes |
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Common terms and phrases
adverb ancient armour arms ballad band bard blood Border bower Branksome Branksome Hall Branksome's bugle called castle chief clan coursers cross Cumberland Dame dead doublet Douglas Dwarf Earl Edinburgh English Eskdale Ettrick Ettrick Forest hall harp Hawick heart helmet hence Hermitage Castle hill holy horse Howard iron Jedburgh knight Ladye Ladye's lances land LAST MINSTREL Liddesdale Lord Cranstoun Low Lat magic Margaret Melrose Abbey Michael Scott Monk moss-trooper Musgrave ne'er noble note on Canto note on line noun o'er pa.p pale ride river Yarrow rode round Roxburghshire rung Scot Scotland Scottish seen Selkirkshire Seneschal Sir Walter Scott song spear spirit spur St Clair St Mary's St Mary's Loch stanza steed stone stream sword Teviot thee Thirlestane thou tide tower truce verb Walter Scott Warden warriors Watt Tinlinn wave ween wild William of Deloraine wood word Yarrow
Popular passages
Page 9 - The way was long, the wind was cold, The Minstrel was infirm and old; His withered cheek, and tresses gray, Seemed to have known a better day; The harp, his sole remaining joy, Was carried by an orphan boy.
Page 34 - IF thou wouldst view fair Melrose aright, Go visit it by the pale moonlight; For the gay beams of lightsome day Gild but to flout the ruins gray.
Page 41 - Some of his skill he taught to me ; And, Warrior, I could say to thee The words that cleft Eildon hills in three, And bridled the Tweed with a curb of stone...
Page 54 - In peace, Love tunes the shepherd's reed; In war, he mounts the warrior's steed; In halls, in gay attire is seen; In hamlets, dances on the green. Love rules the court, the camp, the grove, And men below, and saints above ; For love is heaven, and heaven is love.
Page 126 - Caledonia ! stern and wild, meet nurse for a poetic child, • land of brown heath and shaggy wood, land of the mountain and the flood, land of my sires!
Page 147 - That day of wrath, that dreadful day, When heaven and earth shall pass away, What power shall be the sinner's stay ? How shall he meet that dreadful day ? When...
Page 125 - BREATHES there the man, with soul so dead, Who never to himself hath said, This is my own, my native land? Whose heart hath ne'er within him burned, As home his footsteps he hath turned From wandering on a foreign strand?
Page 126 - From wandering on a foreign strand ? If such there breathe, go, mark him well; For him no minstrel raptures swell ; High though his titles, proud his name, Boundless his wealth as wish can claim, — Despite those titles, power, and pelf, The wretch, concentred all in self, Living, shall forfeit fair renown, And, doubly dying, shall go down To the vile dust from whence he sprung, Unwept, unhonored, and unsung.
Page 35 - ... and buttress, alternately, Seem framed of ebon and ivory ; When silver edges the imagery, And the scrolls that teach thee to live and die ; When distant Tweed is heard to rave, And the owlet to hoot o'er the dead man's grave ; Then go — but go alone the while — Then view St David's ruined pile ; And, home returning, soothly swear, Was never scene so sad and fair ! Short halt did Deloraine make there; Little recked he of the scene so fair.
Page 126 - Caledonia! stern and wild, Meet nurse for a poetic child! Land of brown heath and shaggy wood, Land of the mountain and the flood, Land of my sires! what mortal hand Can e'er untie the filial band, That knits me to thy rugged strand!