e wholly,
Than the friends that hail'd thee mine.

* * * * *

'Twas a Monday morn, and the way that parted
Was far, but I rivall'd the wind,
The troth to plight with a maiden true-hearted,
That force can never unbind.
I led her apart, and the hour that we reckon'd,
While I gain'd a love and a bride,
I heard my heart, and could tell each second,
As its pulses struck on my side.

* * * * *

I told my ail to the foe that pain'd me,
And said that no salve could save;
She heard the tale, and her leech-craft it sain'd me,
For herself to my breast she gave.

* * * * *

Forever, my dear, I 'll dearly adore thee
For chasing away, away,
My fancy's delusion, new loves ever choosing,
And teaching no more to stray.
I roam'd in the wood, many a tendril surveying,
All shapely from branch to stem,
My eye, as it look'd, its ambition betraying
To cull the fairest from them;
One branch of perfume, in blossom all over,
Bent lowly down to my hand,
And yielded its bloom, that hung high from each lover,
To me, the least of the band.
I went to the river, one net-cast I threw in,
Where the stream's transparence ran,
Forget shall I never, how the beauty[108] I drew in,
Shone bright as the gloss of the swan.
Oh, happy the day that crown'd my affection
With such a prize to my share!
My love is a ray, a morning reflection,
Beside me she sleeps, a star.

[108] Gaelic, "gealag"--descriptive of the salmon, from its glossy
brightness.

BENDOURAIN, THE OTTER MOUNT.

Bendourain is a forest scene in the wilds of Glenorchy. The poem, or
lay, is descriptive, less of the forest, or its mountain fastnesses,
than of the habits of the creatures that tenant the locality--the
dun-deer, and the roe. So minutely enthusiastic is the hunter's
treatment of his theme, that the attempt to win any favour for his
performance from the Saxon reader, is attended with no small
risk,--although it is possible that a little practice with the rifle in
any similar wilderness may propitiate even the holiday sportsman
somewhat in favour of the subject and its minute details. We must commit
this forest minstrel to the good-nature of other readers, entreating
them only to render due ackn