Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Scotland: Vols. VI–VIII. 1876–79.
Castle-Gordon
By Robert Burns (17591796)S
Never bound by winter’s chains;
Glowing here on golden sands,
There commixed with foulest stains,
From tyranny’s empurpled bands;
These, their richly gleaming waves,
I leave to tyrants and their slaves;
Give me the stream that sweetly laves
The banks by Castle-Gordon.
Shading from the burning ray
Helpless wretches sold to toil,
Or the ruthless native’s way,
Bent on slaughter, blood, and spoil;
Woods that ever verdant wave,
I leave the tyrant and the slave;
Give me the groves that lofty brave
The storms by Castle-Gordon.
Nature reigns and rules the whole;
In that sober, pensive mood,
Dearest to the feeling soul,
She plants the forest, pours the flood.
Life’s poor day I ’ll musing rave,
And find at night a sheltering cave,
Where waters flow and wildwoods wave,
By bonny Castle-Gordon.