YARROW REVISITED, AND OTHER POEMS
COMPOSED (TWO EXCEPTED) DURING A TOUR IN SCOTLAND AND ON THE ENGLISH BORDER, IN THE AUTUMN OF 1831.
XII. THE EARL OF BREADALBANE’S RUINED MANSION AND FAMILY BURIAL-PLACE, NEAR KILLIN
YARROW REVISITED, AND OTHER POEMS
COMPOSED (TWO EXCEPTED) DURING A TOUR IN SCOTLAND AND ON THE ENGLISH BORDER, IN THE AUTUMN OF 1831.
WELL sang the Bard who called the grave, in strains Thoughtful and sad, the “narrow house.” No style Of fond sepulchral flattery can beguile Grief of her sting; nor cheat, where he detains The sleeping dust, stern Death. How reconcile With truth, or with each other, decked remains Of a once warm Abode, and that ‘new’ Pile, For the departed, built with curious pains And mausolean pomp? Yet here they stand Together,–‘mid trim walks and artful bowers, 10 To be looked down upon by ancient hills, That, for the living and the dead, demand And prompt a harmony of genuine powers; Concord that elevates the mind, and stills.