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

Ettrick, the River

Ettrick

By Lady John Scott (Alicia Ann Spottiswoode) (1810–1900)

O MURMURING waters!

Have ye no message for me?

Ye come from the hills of the west,

Where his step wanders free.

Did he not whisper my name?

Did he not utter one word,

And trust that its sound o’er the rush

Of thy streams might be heard?

O murmuring waters!

The sounds of the moorlands I hear,

The scream of the heron and the eagle,

The bell of the deer;

The rustling of heather and fern,

The shiver of grass on the lea,

The sigh of the wind from the hill,

Hast thou no voice for me?

O murmuring waters!

Flow on,—ye have no voice for me;

Bear the wild songs of the hills

To the depths of the sea!

Bright stream, from the founts of the west

Rush on with thy music and glee!

O, to be borne to my rest

In the cold waves with thee!