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Now seems some mountain side to swcep,

Now faintly dies in valley deep;

Seems now as if the Minstrel's wail,

Now the sad requiem, loads the gale;

Last, o'er the warrior's closing grave,
Rung the full choir in choral stave.

After due pause, they bade him tell, Why he, who touched the harp so well,

Should thus, with ill-rewarded toil,

Wander a poor and thankless soil,

When the more generous southern land

Would well requite his skilful hand.

The Aged Harper, howsoe'er

His only friend, his harp, was dear,
Liked not to hear it ranked so high

Above his flowing poesy;

Less liked he still, that scornful jeer Misprised the land he loved so dear;

High was the sound, as thus again

The Bard resumed his minstrel strain.

THE

LAY

OF

THE LAST MINSTREL.

CANTO SIXTH.

THE

LAY OF THE LAST MINSTREL.

CANTO SIXTH.

I.

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 ! If such there breathe, go, mark him well; For him no Minstrel raptures swell;

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