Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Scotland: Vols. VI–VIII. 1876–79.
The Flower of Keir
By Francis Bennoch (18121890)O,
I know where oft he lingers,
Till night’s black curtain ’s drawn aside
By morning’s rosy fingers.
If you would know, come, follow me,
O’er mountain, moss, and river,
To where the Nith and Scar agree
To flow as one forever.
Through loanings red with roses;
But pause beside the spreading tree
That Fanny’s bower encloses.
There, knitting in her shady grove,
Sits Fanny singing gayly;
Unwitting of the chains of love
She ’s forging for us daily.
And sets the corn a-growing,
Melts icy mountains in the north,
And sets the streams a-flowing;
So Fanny’s eyes, so bright and wise,
Shed loving rays to cheer us,
Her absence gives us wintry skies,
’T is summer when she ’s near us!
To waken love and wonder;
A brow with such an arch of grace,
And blue eyes shining under!
Her snaring smiles, sweet nature’s wiles,
Are equalled not by many;
Her look it charms, her love it warms,
The flower of Keir is Fanny.