The poetical works of Sir Walter Scott, with memoir of the author.

CANTO I.] THE LORD OF THE ISLES. 21
And moralize on mortal joy and pain?O! if such scenes thou lovest, scorn not the
minstrel strain.
No! do not scorn, although its hoarser note
Scarce with the cushat's homely song can vie,
Though faint its beauties as the tints remote
That gleam through mist in autumn's evening
sky,
And few as leaves that tremble, sear and dry,
When wild November hath his bugle wound;
Nor mock my toil-a lonely gleaner I,1
Through fields time-wasted, on sad inquest
bound,
Where happier bards of yore have richer harvest
found.
So shalt thou list, and haply not unmoved,
To a wild tale of Albyn's warrior day;
In distant lands, by. the rough West reproved,
Still live some relics of the ancient lay.
For, when on Coolin's hills the lights decay,
With such the Seer of Skye2 the eve beguiles;'Tis known amid the pathless wastes of Reay,
In Harries known, and in Iona's piles,
Where rest from mortal coil the Mighty of the
Isles.
I [MS. " an humble gleaner I."]
2 [MS. -A" the aged of Skye."]