FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135  
136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   >>   >|  
gpipe before the Highlanders when they go out to battle" (Jamieson). Here it is put for the bagpipe itself. See also on ii. 363 below. 642. And the bittern sound his drum. Goldsmith (D. V. 44) calls the bird "the hollow-sounding bittern;" and in his Animated Nature, he says that of all the notes of waterfowl "there is none so dismally hollow as the booming of the bittern." 648. She paused, etc. The MS. has "She paused--but waked again the lay." 655. The MS. reads: "Slumber sweet our spells shall deal ye;" and in 657: "Let our slumbrous spells| avail ye | beguile ye." 657. Reveille. The call to rouse troops or huntsmen in the morning. 669. Forest sports. The MS. has "mountain chase." 672. Not Ellens' spell. That is, not even Ellen's spell. On the passage, cf. Rokeby, i. 2: "Sleep came at length, but with a train Of feelings true and fancies vain, Mingling, in wild disorder cast, The expected future with the past." 693. Or is it all a vision now? Lockhart quotes here Thomson's Castle of Indolence: "Ye guardian spirits, to whom man is dear, From these foul demons shield the midnight gloom: Angels of fancy and love, be near. And o'er the blank of sleep diffuse a bloom: Evoke the sacred shades of Greece and Rome, And let them virtue with a look impart; But chief, awhile, O! lend us from the tomb Those long-lost friends for whom in love we smart, and fill with pious awe and joy-mixt woe the heart. "Or are you sportive?--bid the morn of youth Rise to new light, and beam afresh the days Of innocence, simplicity, and truth; To cares estranged, and manhood's thorny ways. What transport, to retrace our boyish plays, Our easy bliss, when each thing joy supplied; The woods, the mountains, and the warbling maze Of the wild books!" The Critical Review says of the following stanza (xxxiv): "Such a strange and romantic dream as may be naturally expected to flow from the extraordinary events of the day. It might, perhaps, be quoted as one of Mr. Scott's most successful efforts in descriptive poetry. Some few lines of it are indeed unrivalled for delicacy and melancholy tenderness." 704. Grisly. Grim, horrible; an obsolete word, much used in old poetry. Cf. Spenser, F. Q. i. 5. 30: "her darke griesly looke;" Shakespeare, 1 Hen. VI. i. 4. 47: "My gri
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   111   112   113   114   115   116   117   118   119   120   121   122   123   124   125   126   127   128   129   130   131   132   133   134   135  
136   137   138   139   140   141   142   143   144   145   146   147   148   149   150   151   152   153   154   155   156   157   158   159   160   >>   >|  



Top keywords:
bittern
 

poetry

 

expected

 

paused

 

hollow

 
spells
 
impart
 

estranged

 
virtue
 

manhood


awhile

 

boyish

 
simplicity
 

transport

 
retrace
 

thorny

 
afresh
 
sportive
 

friends

 

innocence


obsolete

 

horrible

 

delicacy

 

unrivalled

 

melancholy

 

tenderness

 

Grisly

 

Spenser

 

Shakespeare

 

griesly


stanza

 
strange
 

romantic

 

Review

 

mountains

 
warbling
 

Critical

 
naturally
 

successful

 
efforts

descriptive
 

quoted

 
events
 
extraordinary
 

supplied

 

booming

 
waterfowl
 

dismally

 
Slumber
 

troops