Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Scotland: Vols. VI–VIII. 1876–79.
Inverary
By James Payn (18301898)P
Shadowing far o’er lawn and lea,
Music of your summer murmur
Breathes no more for me;
Underneath your stately arches
Yet may dreamer, student, lie,
Poet at his perfect pleasure,—
So no more shall I.
Other charméd feet may stray,
Seeking whence its song beginneth
Half a summer’s day;
Where the ancient archway darkens,
Deeper yet the blood-red line,
Cross the ford, and past the rapid:
Nevermore shall mine.
Virgin, yet so near allied,
Morn and eve with plaint and tremor
Sought for Ocean’s bride;
Nevermore I woo thine echoes,
Never let the oar-blades glance,
Lightly as the wings of heron,
Not to break thy trance.
Gleams no more the white-walled town,
Fallen is the ancient watch-tower,
Hid Ben Büi’s frown;
Fades the purple of the moorlands,
Fails the lake’s last look of blue
Through the trees of far Arkinglass,
And my heart fails too.