Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.
BONNIE Kilmeny gaed up the glen; | |
But it wasna to meet Duneira’s men, | |
Nor the rosy monk of the isle to see, | |
For Kilmeny was pure as pure could be. | |
It was only to hear the yorlin sing, | 5 |
And pu’ the cress-flower round the spring; | |
The scarlet hypp and the hindberrye, | |
And the nut that hung frae the hazel tree; | |
For Kilmeny was pure as pure could be. | |
But lang may her minny look o’er the wa’, | 10 |
But lang may she seek i’ the green-wood shaw; | |
Lang the laird o’ Duneira blame, | |
And lang, lang greet or Kilmeny come hame! | |
|
When many a day had come and fled, | |
When grief grew calm, and hope was dead, | 15 |
When mess for Kilmeny’s soul had been sung, | |
When the bedesman had pray’d and the dead bell rung, | |
Late, late in gloamin’ when all was still, | |
When the fringe was red on the westlin hill, | |
The wood was sere, the moon i’ the wane, | 20 |
The reek o’ the cot hung over the plain, | |
Like a little wee cloud in the world its lane; | |
When the ingle low’d wi’ an eiry leme, | |
Late, late in the gloamin’ Kilmeny came hame! | |
|
‘Kilmeny, Kilmeny, where have you been? | 25 |
Lang hae we sought baith holt and den; | |
By linn, by ford, and green-wood tree, | |
Yet you are halesome and fair to see. | |
Where gat you that joup o’ the lily scheen? | |
That bonnie snood of the birk sae green? | 30 |
And these roses, the fairest that ever were seen? | |
Kilmeny, Kilmeny, where have you been?’ | |
|
Kilmeny look’d up with a lovely grace, | |
But nae smile was seen on Kilmeny’s face; | |
As still was her look, and as still was her e’e, | 35 |
As the stillness that lay on the emerant lea, | |
Or the mist that sleeps on a waveless sea. | |
For Kilmeny had been, she knew not where, | |
And Kilmeny had seen what she could not declare; | |
Kilmeny had been where the cock never crew, | 40 |
Where the rain never fell, and the wind never blew. | |
But it seem’d as the harp of the sky had rung, | |
And the airs of heaven play’d round her tongue, | |
When she spake of the lovely forms she had seen, | |
And a land where sin had never been; | 45 |
A land of love and a land of light, | |
Withouten sun, or moon, or night; | |
Where the river swa’d a living stream, | |
And the light a pure celestial beam; | |
The land of vision, it would seem, | 50 |
A still, an everlasting dream. | |
|
In yon green-wood there is a waik, | |
And in that waik there is a wene, | |
And in that wene there is a maike, | |
That neither has flesh, blood, nor bane; | 55 |
And down in yon green-wood he walks his lane. | |
|
In that green wene Kilmeny lay, | |
Her bosom happ’d wi’ flowerets gay; | |
But the air was soft and the silence deep, | |
And bonnie Kilmeny fell sound asleep. | 60 |
She kenn’d nae mair, nor open’d her e’e, | |
Till waked by the hymns of a far countrye. | |
|
She ‘waken’d on a couch of the silk sae slim, | |
All striped wi’ the bars of the rainbow’s rim; | |
And lovely beings round were rife, | 65 |
Who erst had travell’d mortal life; | |
And aye they smiled and ‘gan to speer, | |
‘What spirit has brought this mortal here?’— | |
|
‘Lang have I journey’d, the world wide,’ | |
A meek and reverend fere replied; | 70 |
‘Baith night and day I have watch’d the fair, | |
Eident a thousand years and mair. | |
Yes, I have watch’d o’er ilk degree, | |
Wherever blooms femenitye; | |
But sinless virgin, free of stain | 75 |
In mind and body, fand I nane. | |
Never, since the banquet of time, | |
Found I a virgin in her prime, | |
Till late this bonnie maiden I saw | |
As spotless as the morning snaw: | 80 |
Full twenty years she has lived as free | |
As the spirits that sojourn in this countrye: | |
I have brought her away frae the snares of men, | |
That sin or death she never may ken.’— | |
|
They clasp’d her waist and her hands sae fair, | 85 |
They kiss’d her cheek and they kemed her hair, | |
And round came many a blooming fere, | |
Saying, ‘Bonnie Kilmeny, ye’re welcome here! | |
Women are freed of the littand scorn: | |
O blest be the day Kilmeny was born! | 90 |
Now shall the land of the spirits see, | |
Now shall it ken what a woman may be! | |
Many a lang year, in sorrow and pain, | |
Many a lang year through the world we’ve gane, | |
Commission’d to watch fair womankind, | 95 |
For it ‘s they who nurice the immortal mind. | |
We have watch’d their steps as the dawning shone, | |
And deep in the green-wood walks alone; | |
By lily bower and silken bed, | |
The viewless tears have o’er them shed; | 100 |
Have soothed their ardent minds to sleep, | |
Or left the couch of love to weep. | |
We have seen! we have seen! but the time must come, | |
And the angels will weep at the day of doom! | |
|
‘O would the fairest of mortal kind | 105 |
Aye keep the holy truths in mind, | |
That kindred spirits their motions see, | |
Who watch their ways with anxious e’e, | |
And grieve for the guilt of humanitye! | |
O, sweet to Heaven the maiden’s prayer, | 110 |
And the sigh that heaves a bosom sae fair! | |
And dear to Heaven the words of truth, | |
And the praise of virtue frae beauty’s mouth! | |
And dear to the viewless forms of air, | |
The minds that kyth as the body fair! | 115 |
|
‘O bonnie Kilmeny! free frae stain, | |
If ever you seek the world again, | |
That world of sin, of sorrow and fear, | |
O tell of the joys that are waiting here; | |
And tell of the signs you shall shortly see; | 120 |
Of the times that are now, and the times that shall be.’— | |
They lifted Kilmeny, they led her away, | |
And she walk’d in the light of a sunless day; | |
The sky was a dome of crystal bright, | |
The fountain of vision, and fountain of light: | 125 |
The emerald fields were of dazzling glow, | |
And the flowers of everlasting blow. | |
Then deep in the stream her body they laid, | |
That her youth and beauty never might fade; | |
And they smiled on heaven, when they saw her lie | 130 |
In the stream of life that wander’d bye. | |
And she heard a song, she heard it sung, | |
She kenn’d not where; but sae sweetly it rung, | |
It fell on the ear like a dream of the morn: | |
‘O, blest be the day Kilmeny was born! | 135 |
Now shall the land of the spirits see, | |
Now shall it ken what a woman may be! | |
The sun that shines on the world sae bright, | |
A borrow’d gleid frae the fountain of light; | |
And the moon that sleeks the sky sae dun, | 140 |
Like a gouden bow, or a beamless sun, | |
Shall wear away, and be seen nae mair, | |
And the angels shall miss them travelling the air. | |
But lang, lang after baith night and day, | |
When the sun and the world have elyed away; | 145 |
When the sinner has gane to his waesome doom, | |
Kilmeny shall smile in eternal bloom!’— | |
|
They bore her away, she wist not how, | |
For she felt not arm nor rest below; | |
But so swift they wain’d her through the light, | 150 |
‘Twas like the motion of sound or sight; | |
They seem’d to split the gales of air, | |
And yet nor gale nor breeze was there. | |
Unnumber’d groves below them grew, | |
They came, they pass’d, and backward flew, | 155 |
Like floods of blossoms gliding on, | |
In moment seen, in moment gone. | |
O, never vales to mortal view | |
Appear’d like those o’er which they flew! | |
That land to human spirits given, | 160 |
The lowermost vales of the storied heaven; | |
From thence they can view the world below, | |
And heaven’s blue gates with sapphires glow, | |
More glory yet unmeet to know. | |
|
They bore her far to a mountain green, | 165 |
To see what mortal never had seen; | |
And they seated her high on a purple sward, | |
And bade her heed what she saw and heard, | |
And note the changes the spirits wrought, | |
For now she lived in the land of thought. | 170 |
She look’d, and she saw nor sun nor skies, | |
But a crystal dome of a thousand dyes: | |
She look’d, and she saw nae land aright, | |
But an endless whirl of glory and light: | |
And radiant beings went and came, | 175 |
Far swifter than wind, or the linkèd flame. | |
She hid her e’en frae the dazzling view; | |
She look’d again, and the scene was new. | |
|
She saw a sun on a summer sky, | |
And clouds of amber sailing bye; | 180 |
A lovely land beneath her lay, | |
And that land had glens and mountains gray; | |
And that land had valleys and hoary piles, | |
And marlèd seas, and a thousand isles. | |
Its fields were speckled, its forests green, | 185 |
And its lakes were all of the dazzling sheen, | |
Like magic mirrors, where slumbering lay | |
The sun and the sky and the cloudlet gray; | |
Which heaved and trembled, and gently swung, | |
On every shore they seem’d to be hung; | 190 |
For there they were seen on their downward plain | |
A thousand times and a thousand again; | |
In winding lake and placid firth, | |
Little peaceful heavens in the bosom of earth. | |
|
Kilmeny sigh’d and seem’d to grieve, | 195 |
For she found her heart to that land did cleave; | |
She saw the corn wave on the vale, | |
She saw the deer run down the dale; | |
She saw the plaid and the broad claymore, | |
And the brows that the badge of freedom bore; | 200 |
And she thought she had seen the land before. | |
|
She saw a lady sit on a throne, | |
The fairest that ever the sun shone on! | |
A lion lick’d her hand of milk, | |
And she held him in a leish of silk; | 205 |
And a leifu’ maiden stood at her knee, | |
With a silver wand and melting e’e; | |
Her sovereign shield till love stole in, | |
And poison’d all the fount within. | |
|
Then a gruff untoward bedesman came, | 210 |
And hundit the lion on his dame; | |
And the guardian maid wi’ the dauntless e’e, | |
She dropp’d a tear, and left her knee; | |
And she saw till the queen frae the lion fled, | |
Till the bonniest flower of the world lay dead; | 215 |
A coffin was set on a distant plain, | |
And she saw the red blood fall like rain; | |
Then bonnie Kilmeny’s heart grew sair, | |
And she turn’d away, and could look nae mair. | |
|
Then the gruff grim carle girn’d amain, | 220 |
And they trampled him down, but he rose again; | |
And he baited the lion to deeds of weir, | |
Till he lapp’d the blood to the kingdom dear; | |
And weening his head was danger-preef, | |
When crown’d with the rose and clover leaf, | 225 |
He gowl’d at the carle, and chased him away | |
To feed wi’ the deer on the mountain gray. | |
He gowl’d at the carle, and geck’d at Heaven, | |
But his mark was set, and his arles given. | |
Kilmeny a while her e’en withdrew; | 230 |
She look’d again, and the scene was new. | |
|
She saw before her fair unfurl’d | |
One half of all the glowing world, | |
Where oceans roll’d, and rivers ran, | |
To bound the aims of sinful man. | 235 |
She saw a people, fierce and fell, | |
Burst frae their bounds like fiends of hell; | |
Their lilies grew, and the eagle flew; | |
And she herkèd on her ravening crew, | |
Till the cities and towers were wrapp’d in a blaze, | 240 |
And the thunder it roar’d o’er the lands and the seas. | |
The widows they wail’d, and the red blood ran, | |
And she threaten’d an end to the race of man; | |
She never lened, nor stood in awe, | |
Till caught by the lion’s deadly paw. | 245 |
O, then the eagle swink’d for life, | |
And brainyell’d up a mortal strife; | |
But flew she north, or flew she south, | |
She met wi’ the gowl o’ the lion’s mouth. | |
|
With a mooted wing and waefu’ maen, | 250 |
The eagle sought her eiry again; | |
But lang may she cower in her bloody nest, | |
And lang, lang sleek her wounded breast, | |
Before she sey another flight, | |
To play wi’ the norland lion’s might. | 255 |
|
But to sing the sights Kilmeny saw, | |
So far surpassing nature’s law, | |
The singer’s voice wad sink away, | |
And the string of his harp wad cease to play. | |
But she saw till the sorrows of man were bye, | 260 |
And all was love and harmony; | |
Till the stars of heaven fell calmly away, | |
Like flakes of snaw on a winter day. | |
|
Then Kilmeny begg’d again to see | |
The friends she had left in her own countrye; | 265 |
To tell of the place where she had been, | |
And the glories that lay in the land unseen; | |
To warn the living maidens fair, | |
The loved of Heaven, the spirits’ care, | |
That all whose minds unmeled remain | 270 |
Shall bloom in beauty when time is gane. | |
|
With distant music, soft and deep, | |
They lull’d Kilmeny sound asleep; | |
And when she awaken’d, she lay her lane, | |
All happ’d with flowers, in the green-wood wene. | 275 |
When seven lang years had come and fled, | |
When grief was calm, and hope was dead; | |
When scarce was remember’d Kilmeny’s name, | |
Late, late in a gloamin’ Kilmeny came hame! | |
And O, her beauty was fair to see, | 280 |
But still and steadfast was her e’e! | |
Such beauty bard may never declare, | |
For there was no pride nor passion there; | |
And the soft desire of maiden’s e’en | |
In that mild face could never be seen. | 285 |
Her seymar was the lily flower, | |
And her cheek the moss-rose in the shower; | |
And her voice like the distant melodye, | |
That floats along the twilight sea. | |
But she loved to raike the lanely glen, | 290 |
And keepèd afar frae the haunts of men; | |
Her holy hymns unheard to sing, | |
To suck the flowers, and drink the spring. | |
But wherever her peaceful form appear’d, | |
The wild beasts of the hill were cheer’d; | 295 |
The wolf play’d blythly round the field, | |
The lordly byson low’d and kneel’d; | |
The dun deer woo’d with manner bland, | |
And cower’d aneath her lily hand. | |
And when at even the woodlands rung, | 300 |
When hymns of other worlds she sung | |
In ecstasy of sweet devotion, | |
O, then the glen was all in motion! | |
The wild beasts of the forest came, | |
Broke from their bughts and faulds the tame, | 305 |
And goved around, charm’d and amazed; | |
Even the dull cattle croon’d and gazed, | |
And murmur’d and look’d with anxious pain | |
For something the mystery to explain. | |
The buzzard came with the throstle-cock; | 310 |
The corby left her houf in the rock; | |
The blackbird alang wi’ the eagle flew; | |
The hind came tripping o’er the dew; | |
The wolf and the kid their raike began, | |
And the tod, and the lamb, and the leveret ran; | 315 |
The hawk and the hern attour them hung, | |
And the merle and the mavis forhooy’d their young; | |
And all in a peaceful ring were hurl’d; | |
It was like an eve in a sinless world! | |
|
When a month and a day had come and gane. | 320 |
Kilmeny sought the green-wood wene; | |
There laid her down on the leaves sae green, | |
And Kilmeny on earth was never mair seen. | |
But O, the words that fell from her mouth | |
Were words of wonder, and words of truth! | 325 |
But all the land were in fear and dread, | |
For they kendna whether she was living or dead. | |
It wasna her hame, and she couldna remain; | |
She left this world of sorrow and pain, | |
And return’d to the land of thought again. | 330 |