Verses On The Destruction Of The Woods Near Drumlanrig
As on the banks o’ wandering Nith,
Aesmiling simmermorn I stray’d,
And traced its bonie howes and haughs,
Where linties sang and lammies play’d,
I sat me down upon a craig,
And drank my fill o’ fancy’s dream,
When from the eddying deep below,
Up rose the genius of the stream.
Dark, like the frowning rock, his brow,
And troubled, like his wintry wave,
And deep, as sughs the boding wind
Amanghis caves, the sigh he gave-
“And come ye here, my son,” he cried,
“To wander in my birkenshade?
To muse some favourite Scottish theme,
Or sing some favourite Scottish maid?
“There was a time, it’s nae langsyne,
Ye might haeseen me in my pride,
When a’my banks sae bravely saw
Their woodypictures in my tide;
When hanging beech and spreading elm
Shaded my stream sae clear and cool:
And stately oaks their twisted arms
Threw broad and dark across the pool;
“When, glinting thro’ the trees, appear’d
The weewhite cot aboonthe mill,
And peacefu’ rose its inglereek,
That, slowly curling, clamb the hill.
Butnow the cot is bare and cauld,
Its leafy bieldfor ever gane,
And scarce a stinted birkis left
To shiver in the blast its lane.”
“Alas!” quoth I, “what ruefu’ chance
Has twin’d ye o’ your stately trees?
Has laid your rocky bosom bare-
Has stripped the cleeding o’your braes?
Was it the bitter eastern blast,
That scatters blight in early spring?
Or was’t the wil’fire scorch’d their boughs,
Orcanker-worm wi’secret sting?”
“Nae eastlinblast,” the sprite replied;
“It blaws nahere saefierce and fell,
And on my dryand halesomebanks
Naecanker-worms getleave to dwell:
Man! cruel man!” the genius sighed-
As throughthe cliffs he sank him down-
“The worm that gnaw’d my bonietrees,
That reptile wears a ducal crown.”^1