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Home  »  Poems of Places An Anthology in 31 Volumes  »  The Rose of Seaton Vale

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

Seaton Vale

The Rose of Seaton Vale

By John Imlah (1799–1846)

A BONNIE Rose bloomed wild and fair,

As sweet a bud, I trow,

As ever breathed the morning air,

Or drank the evening dew.

A Zephyr loved the blushing flower,

With sigh and fond love-tale;

It wooed within its briery bower

The Rose of Seaton Vale.

With wakening kiss the Zephyr pressed

This bud at morning light;

At noon it fanned its glowing breast,

And nestled there at night.

But other flowers sprung up thereby,

And lured the roving gale;

The Zephyr left to droop and die

The Rose of Seaton Vale.

A matchless maiden dwelt by Don,

Loved by as fair a youth;

Long had their young hearts throbbed as one

Wi’ tenderness and truth.

Thy warmest tear, soft Pity, pour,—

For Ellen’s type and tale

Are in that sweet, ill-fated flower,

The Rose of Seaton Vale.