ODE

ON

THE POPULAR SUPERSTITIONS OF THE HIGHLANDS OF SCOTLAND;

CONSIDERED AS THE SUBJECT OF POETRY;

INSCRIBED TO MR. JOHN HOME.

I.

HOME, thou return'st from Thames, whose Naiads

long

Have seen thee lingering with a fond delay,

'Mid those soft friends, whose hearts, some future day,

Shall melt, perhaps, to hear thy tragic song P.

Go, not unmindful of that cordial youth

5

Whom, long endear'd, thou leav'st by Lavant's side; Together let us wish him lasting truth, And joy untainted with his destin'd bride. Go! nor regardless, while these numbers boast My short-liv'd bliss, forget my social name; But think, far off, how, on the southern coast, I met thy friendship with an equal flame!

10

r How truly did Collins predict Home's tragic powers! 9 A gentleman of the name of Barrow, who introduced Home to Collins.

Fresh to that soil thou turn'st, where every vale
Shall prompt the poet, and his song demand:
To thee thy copious subjects ne'er shall fail;

15

Thou need'st but take thy pencil to thy hand, And paint what all believe, who own thy genial land.

II.

20

There, must thou wake perforce thy Doric quill;
'Tis Fancy's land to which thou sett'st thy feet;
Where still, 'tis said, the fairy people meet,
Beneath each birken shade, on mead or hill.
There, each trim lass, that skims the milky store,
To the swart tribes their creamy bowls allots;
By night they sip it round the cottage door,
While airy minstrels warble jocund notes.
There, every herd, by sad experience, knows
How, wing'd with fate, their elf-shot arrows fly,
When the sick ewe her summer food foregoes,

25

25

30

Or, stretch'd on earth, the heart-smit heifers lie. Such airy beings awe th' untutor'd swain: Nor thou, though learn'd, his homelier thoughts

neglect ;

Let thy sweet muse the rural faith sustain;

These are the themes of simple, sure effect,

That add new conquests to her boundless reign,

And fill, with double force, her heart-command

ing strain.

35

III.

Ev'n yet preserv'd, how often may'st thou hear,
Where to the pole the Boreal mountains run,
Taught by the father, to his listening son,

Strange lays, whose power had charm'd a Spenser's

At

ear.

every pause, before thy mind possest,

Old Runic bards shall seem to rise around, With uncouth lyres, in many-colour'd vest,

40

Their matted hair with boughs fantastic crown'd: Whether thou bid'st the well-taught hind repeat

The choral dirge, that mourns some chieftain brave,

When every shrieking maid her bosom beat,

46

And strew'd with choicest herbs his scented grave! Or whether, sitting in the shepherd's shiel1,

Thou hear'st some sounding tale of war's alarms; When at the bugle's call, with fire and steel,

50

The sturdy clans pour'd forth their brawny swarms, And hostile brothers met, to prove each other's arms.

VARIATIONS.

Ver. 44. Originally written,

Whether thou bid'st the well-taught hind relate

Ver. 51. In the Edinburgh edition,

The sturdy clans pour'd forth their bony swarms.

r A summer hut, built in the high part of the mountains, to tend their flocks in the warm season, when the pasture is fine.

IV.

'Tis thine to sing, how, framing hideous spells, In Sky's lone isle, the gifted wizard-seer,

Lodg'd in the wintry cave with Fate's fell spear, Or in the depth of Uist's dark forest dwells:

56

How they, whose sight such dreary dreams engross,

With their own visions oft astonish'd droop,

When, o'er the watery strath, or quaggy moss,
They see the gliding ghosts unbodied troop.
Or, if in sports, or on the festive green,
Their destin'd glance some fated youth descry,

Who now, perhaps, in lusty vigour seen,
And rosy health, shall soon lamented die.

For them the viewless forms of air obey; Their bidding heed, and at their beck repair:

60

65

They know what spirit brews the stormful day, And heartless, oft like moody madness, stare To see the phantom train their secret work prepare.

V.

To monarchs dear, some hundred miles astray, 70 Oft have they seen Fate give the fatal blow!

The seer, in Sky, shriek'd as the blood did flow, When headless Charles warm on the scaffold lay!

VARIATIONS.

Ver. 56. First written;

Or in the gloom of Uist's, etc.

Ver. 58. First written;

With their own visions oft afflicted droop,

Ver. 66. First written;

Their bidding mark, etc.

I

As Boreas threw his young

Auroras forth,

In the first year of the first George's reign, 75 And battles rag'd in welkin of the North, They mourn'd in air, fell, fell Rebellion slain! And as, of late, they joy'd in Preston's fight,

Saw, at sad Falkirk, all their hopes near crown'd! They rav'd! divining, through their second sight, 80 Pale, red Culloden, where these hopes were drown'd!

Illustrious William"! Britain's guardian name !
One William sav'd us from a tyrant's stroke;
He, for a sceptre, gain'd heroic fame,

But thou, more glorious, Slavery's chain hast

broke,

85

To reign a private man, and bow to Freedom's yoke!

VI.

These, too, thou'lt sing! for well thy magic muse
Can to the topmost heaven of grandeur soar;
Or stoop to wail the swain that is no more!
Ah, homely swains! your homeward steps ne'er

lose;

90

By young Aurora, Collins undoubtedly meant the first appearance of the northern lights, which happened about the year 1715; at least it is most highly probable, from this peculiar circumstance, that no ancient writer whatever has taken any notice of them, nor even any one modern, previous to the above period.

t Second sight is the term that is used for the divination of the highlanders.

u The late duke of Cumberland, who defeated the Pretender at the battle of Culloden.