@3Sound, sound the clarion, fill the fife! To all the sensual world proclaim, One crowded hour of glorious life Is worth an age without a name.@1 The sun upon the Weirdlaw Hill, In Ettrick's vale, is sinking sweet; The westland wind is hush and still, The lake lies sleeping at my feet. Yet not the landscape to mine eye Bears those bright hues that once it bore; Though evening, with her richest dye, Flames o'er the hills of Ettrick's shore. With listless look along the plain I see Tweed's silver current glide, And coldly mark the holy fane Of Melrose rise in ruin'd pride. The quiet lake, the balmy air, The hill, the stream, the tower, the tree, -- Are they still such as once they were, Or is the dreary change in me? Alas, the warp'd and broken board, How can it bear the painter's dye! The harp of strain'd and tuneless chord, How to the minstrel's skill reply! To aching eyes each landscape lowers, To feverish pulse each gale blows chill; And Araby's or Eden's bowers Were barren as this moorland hill. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...SONNET: ADDRESSED TO HAYDON (2) by JOHN KEATS CELIA'S HOMECOMING by AGNES MARY F. ROBINSON ON RECEIVING [THE FIRST] NEWS OF THE WAR by ISAAC ROSENBERG THE RIVER DUDDON: SONNET 34. AFTER-THOUGHT by WILLIAM WORDSWORTH QUATRAIN: THE IRON AGE by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH MY WINTER ROSE by ALFRED AUSTIN |