gh I strive aye
To shake him away, still he clings like the ivy.

IV.

But, auburn-hair'd Anna! to tell thee my plight,
'Tis old love unrequited that prostrates my might,
In presence or absence, aye faithful, my smart
Still racks, and still searches, and tugs at my heart--
Broken that heart, yet why disappear
From my country, without one embrace from my dear?

V.

She answers with laughter and haughty disdain--
"To handle my snood you petition in vain;
Six suitors are mine since the year thou wert gone,
What art _thou_, that thou should'st be the favourite one?
Art thou sick? Ha, ha, for thy woe!
Art thou dying for love? Troth, love's payment was slow."[98]

VI.

Though my anger may feign it requites thy disdain,
And vaunts in thy absence, it threatens in vain--
All in vain! for thy image in fondness returns,
And o'er thy sweet likeness expectancy burns;
And I hope--yes, I hope once more,
Till my hope waxes high as a tower[99] in its soar.

[95] "Anne"--Rob's first love, the heroine of the piece. "Similar in
interest to the Highland Mary of Burns, is the yellow-haired Anne of Rob
Donn."--"Life," p. 18.

[96] "Isabel"--the daughter of Ian Macechan, the subject of other
verses.

[97] "Unsummon'd of thee." The idea is rather quaintly expressed in the
original thus--"Though thou hast sent me no summons, love has, of his
own accord, acted the part of a catchpole (or sheriff's officer), and
will not release me." Such are the homely fancies introduced into some
of the most passionate strains of the Gaelic muse.

[98] Alluding to his absence, and delay in his courtship.

[99] Rather more modest than the classic's "feriam sidera vertice."

ISABEL MACKAY--THE MAID ALONE.

TO A PIOBRACH TUNE.

This is one of those lyrics, of which there are many in Gaelic poetry,
that are intended to imitate pipe music. They consist of three parts,
called Urlar, Siubhal, and Crunluath. The first is a slow, monotonous
measure, usually, indeed, a mere repetition of the same words or tones;
the second, a livelier or brisker melody, striking into description or
narrative; the third, a rapid finale, taxing the reciter's or
performer's powers to their utmost pitch of expedition. The heroine of
the song is the same Isabel who is in