Poem by Robert Burns

A Vision

As I stood by you roofless tower,
  Where the wa’-flower scents the dewy air,
Where the howlet mourns in her ivy bower,
  And tells the midnight moon her care;

  A lassie, all alone was making her moan,
    Lamenting our lads beyond the sea:
  In the bluidy wars they fa’, and our honour’s gane an’ a,
    And broken-hearted we maun die.

The winds were laid, the air was still,
  The stars they shot alang the sky;
The fox was howling on the hill,
  And the distant-echoing glens reply.

The stream, adown its hazelly path,
  Was rushing by the ruin’d wa’s,
Hasting to join the sweeping Nith,
  Whase distant roaring swells and fa’s.

The cauld blue north was streaming forth
  Her lights, wi’ hissing, eerie din;
Athort the lift they start and shift,
  Like fortune’s favours, tint as win.

Now, looking over firth and fauld,
  Her horn the pale-faced Cynthia reared,
When lo! in guise of Minstrel auld,
  A stern and stalwart ghaist appeared.

And frae his harp sic strains did flow,
  Might rous’d the slumbering dead to hear;
But oh, it was a tale of woe,
  As ever met a Briton’s ear!

He sang wi’ joy his former day,
  He weeping wail’d his latter times;
But what he said it was nae play,
  I winna venture’t in my rhymes.

1. I Gaed a Waefu' Gate Yestreen
2. Blythe Was She
3. Farewell to Ballochmyle
4. Stay My Charmer
5. On a Bank of Flowers

Edith Wharton A Vision ("On the wide shores of melody I strayed")

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