Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Scotland: Vols. VI–VIII. 1876–79.
Lochiel’s Farewell
By John Grieve (1781–1836)C
Spring no wild-flowers nor verdure fair;
Thou feel’st not summer’s genial glow,
More than the freezing wintry air.
For once thou drank’st the hero’s blood,
And war’s unhallowed footsteps bore;
Thy deeds unholy nature viewed,
Then fled, and cursed thee evermore.
How proudly Lovat’s banners soar!
How fierce the plaided Highland clans
Rush onward with the broad claymore!
Those hearts that high with honor heave,
The volleying thunder there laid low;
Or scattered like the forest leaves,
When wintry winds begin to blow!
The braided plumes torn from thy brow,
What must thy haughty spirit feel,
When skulking like the mountain roe!
While wild birds chant from Lochy’s bowers,
On April eve, their loves and joys,
The Lord of Lochy’s loftiest towers
To foreign lands an exile flies.
As o’er the deep his galley bore,
He often looked and cried, “Adieu!
I ’ll never see Lochaber more!
Though now thy wounds I cannot feel,
My dear, my injured native land,
In other climes thy foe shall feel
The weight of Cameron’s deadly brand.
Where Fingal fought and Ossian sung!
Mourn dark Culloden’s fateful day,
That from thy chiefs the laurel wrung.
Where once they ruled and roamed at will,
Free as their own dark mountain game,
Their sons are slaves, yet keenly feel
A longing for their father’s fame.
Who, faithful to your Stuart, fell!
No trophies mark your common grave,
Nor dirges to your memory swell.
But generous hearts will weep your fate,
When far has rolled the tide of time;
And bards unborn shall renovate
Your fading fame in loftiest rhyme.”