The Lay of the Last Minstrel: A Poem |
From inside the book
Page 16
... sword and spur on heel : They quitted not their harness bright , Neither by day , nor yet by night : They lay down to rest With corselet laced , Pillowed on buckler cold and hard ; They carved at the meal With gloves of steel , And they ...
... sword and spur on heel : They quitted not their harness bright , Neither by day , nor yet by night : They lay down to rest With corselet laced , Pillowed on buckler cold and hard ; They carved at the meal With gloves of steel , And they ...
Page 18
... sword hangs rusting on the wall , Beside his broken spear . Bards long shall tell How lord Walter fell ! When startled burghers fled , afar , The furies of the Border war ; When the streets of high Dunedin Saw lances gleam and falchions ...
... sword hangs rusting on the wall , Beside his broken spear . Bards long shall tell How lord Walter fell ! When startled burghers fled , afar , The furies of the Border war ; When the streets of high Dunedin Saw lances gleam and falchions ...
Page 81
... blanched locks below Were white as Dinly's spotless snow ; Five stately warriors drew the sword Before their father's band ; A braver knight than Harden's lord Ne'er belted on a brand . X. Whitsdale , the Hawk , and Headshaw came , 81.
... blanched locks below Were white as Dinly's spotless snow ; Five stately warriors drew the sword Before their father's band ; A braver knight than Harden's lord Ne'er belted on a brand . X. Whitsdale , the Hawk , and Headshaw came , 81.
Page 85
... , Who brought the band from distant Rhine , And sold their blood for foreign pay : The camp their home , their law the sword , They knew no country , owned no lord ; H They were not armed like England's sons , But bore 85.
... , Who brought the band from distant Rhine , And sold their blood for foreign pay : The camp their home , their law the sword , They knew no country , owned no lord ; H They were not armed like England's sons , But bore 85.
Page 89
... ladye fair to draw their swords ; But yet they may not tamely see , All through the western wardenry , Your law - contemning kinsmen ride , And burn and spoil the Border side ; And ill beseems your rank and birth , To make H2 89 XX. ...
... ladye fair to draw their swords ; But yet they may not tamely see , All through the western wardenry , Your law - contemning kinsmen ride , And burn and spoil the Border side ; And ill beseems your rank and birth , To make H2 89 XX. ...
Common terms and phrases
ancient arms band baron beneath betwixt blaze blood blood-hound Border Branksome Branksome Hall Branksome's brave Buccleuch called CANTO Carlisle wall castle Cessford chapel chief Clair clan courser cross Cumberland dæmons dame dead Douglas dread earl earl of Angus earl of Orkney Eildon hills English Ettricke Ettricke Forest fair on Carlisle father friends Froissart hall hand harp Hawick head heard highnes horse Howard Jedburgh king Kirkwall knight ladye laird of Buccleuch lance lands Liddesdale lord Dacre Melrose Michael MINSTREL mosstrooper Musgrave Naworth Castle ne'er noble o'er ride rode Roslin round rung Saint sayd Scotland Scots Scottish Scottish Border shew shulde Sir William slain song spear steed stone stood sun shines fair sword Teviot's Teviotdale thee theyme theyre Thomas Musgrave thou Tinlinn tower Twas tyme Verse Virgilius Walter Scott warden warrior wave ween wild William of Deloraine wound
Popular passages
Page 143 - There are twenty of Roslin's barons bold Lie buried within that proud chapelle; Each one the holy vault doth hold— But the sea holds lovely Rosabelle!
Page 141 - Nor tempt the stormy firth to-day. ' The blackening wave is edged with white; To inch and rock the sea-mews fly; The fishers have heard the Water-Sprite, Whose screams forebode that wreck is nigh. ' Last night the gifted Seer did view A wet shroud swathed round ladye gay; Then stay thee, Fair, in Ravensheuch; Why cross the gloomy firth to-day?
Page 111 - True love's the gift which God has given To man alone beneath the heaven : It is not fantasy's hot fire, Whose wishes, soon as granted, fly ; It liveth not in fierce desire, With dead desire it doth not die ; It is the secret sympathy, The silver link, the silken tie, Which heart to heart, and mind to mind, In body and in soul can bind.
Page 126 - 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 ! Still, as I view each well-known scene, Think what is now, and what hath been, Seems as, to me, of all bereft, Sole friends thy woods and streams were left ; And thus I love them better still, Even in extremity of ill. By Yarrow's stream still let me stray, Though none should guide my feeble...
Page 39 - The moon on the east oriel shone Through slender shafts of shapely stone, By foliaged tracery combined ; Thou would'st have thought some fairy's hand 'Twixt poplars straight the ozier wand, In many a freakish knot, had twined ; Then framed a spell, when the work was done, And changed the willow wreaths to stone.
Page 9 - Seemed to have known a better day ; The harp, his sole remaining joy, Was carried by an orphan boy. The last of all the bards was he, Who sung of Border chivalry ; For, well-a-day ! their date was fled, His tuneful brethren all were dead ; And he, neglected and oppressed, Wished to be with them, and at rest.
Page 125 - 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 55 - 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 15 - THE feast was over in Branksome tower, And the Ladye had gone to her secret bower ; Her bower, that was guarded by word and by spell, Deadly to hear, and deadly to tell — Jesu Maria, shield us well ! No living wight save the Ladye alone, Had dared to cross the threshold stone.
Page 149 - 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...