Poem by Walter Scott

The Truth of Woman

Woman's faith, and woman's trust -
Write the characters in the dust;
Stamp them on the running stream,
Print them on the moon's pale beam,
And each evanescent letter
Shall be clearer, firmer, better,
And more permanent, I ween,
Than the thing those letters mean.

I have strain'd the spider's thread
'Gainst the promise of a maid;
I have weigh'd a grain of sand
'Gainst her plight of heart and hand;
I told my true love of the token,
How her faith proved light, and her word was broken:
Again her word and truth she plight,
And I believed them again ere night. 

1. Lines Addressed to Ranald Macdonald, Esq., of Staffa
2. On Ettrick Forest’s Mountains Dun
3. Here’s a Health to King Charles
4. Major Bellenden's Song
5. The Norman Horse-Shoe

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