Poetry Explorer


Classic and Contemporary Poetry


QUEM TU, MELPOMENE by JAMES LOGIE ROBERTSON

First Line: WHAM AT HIS BIRTH WI' MOURNFU' SMILE

WHAM at his birth wi' mournfu ' smile
The Muse has ance regairdet,
Shall ne'er in field o' battle toil
To be with bays rewairdet.


Yet shall he haunt, a lanely ghost,
The placid battle plain
To mourn the lives that there were lost,
The loves that there were slain .


Hoo caulder for thae stricken lives
Maun mony a hearth hae been;
Hoo blank to mony bairns an ' wives
The social hoor at e'en!


Nae hunter on the heather hills
Bird -slaughterin ' shall he be,
Nor fisher rivin ' fra the gills
O'some puir troot his flee,


Yet shall he love the dusky pools
And speel the mountain stairs,
Unburdened wi' the murderin ' tools
O'guns an ' gauds an ' snares,


O'erjoy'd to find attractions rife
In Nature's ilka feature,
And share the brotherhood of life
With every happy creature ,


Oh, what avails a victor's name
At close of battle clangour?
This warld is far owre sma' for fame,
And life owre short for anger.




Home: PoetryExplorer.net