Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Scotland: Vols. VI–VIII. 1876–79.
Loch Leven Castle
By Amanda M. Corey Edmond (1824–1862)P
Whose waters dance with silver gleam,
Beneath the gentle breezes’ swell,
That bear upon their downy wing
The fragrance of the heather bell,
On every wild hill blossoming,
And remnant rude of kingly power,
Thou standest as in days of yore,
When pensive Mary, Scotland’s Queen,
A prisoner on the castled shore,
Gazed on the lake of sparkling sheen.
And who shall Mary’s name forget,
Though thou may’st crumble from the view,
And Leven’s waters cease to run,
Reflecting from their breast of blue
The silver moon and golden sun?
Illume Loch Leven’s bosom fair,
Nor clarion shrill of armored men
The breeze across the lake shall bear.
But while remains a stone of thine,
It shall be linked to royal fame,
For there a Rose of Stuart’s line
Hath left the fragrance of her name.