Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Scotland: Vols. VI–VIII. 1876–79.

Blackford Hill

Blackford Hill

By Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832)

(From Marmion)

BLACKFORD! on whose uncultured breast,

Among the broom, and thorn, and whin,

A truant-boy, I sought the nest,

Or listed, as I lay at rest,

While rose, on breezes thin,

The murmur of the city crowd,

And, from his steeple jangling loud,

Saint Giles’s mingling din.

Now, from the summit to the plain,

Waves all the hill with yellow grain;

And o’er the landscape as I look,

Naught do I see unchanged remain,

Save the rude cliffs and chiming brook.

To me they make a heavy moan,

Of early friendships past and gone.