Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, SHEEPIEKNOWE: A BALLAD, by JANET HAMILTON



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SHEEPIEKNOWE: A BALLAD, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Aul' sheepieknowe! How dear the name!
Last Line: Rest, weary heart! Peace, peace to thee!
Alternate Author Name(s): Hamilton, Janet Thompson
Subject(s): Cousins; Grief; Scotland; Sorrow; Sadness


AUL' Sheepieknowe! how dear the name!
Lane birthplace of my guid forbears;
Scene o' their life-lang cares an' toils,
Their sunny joys and cloudy fears.

Oh! mony a simmer sun has shone
An' mony a wintry blast has blawn,
On thy laigh heather-theekit roof,
An' aul' grey wa's that stievely staun.

An' mony a bairn first saw the licht
Aneath thy sooty, strang roof-tree—
That leev'd an' lov'd, an' toiled, an' there
Lay doun in faith and hope to dee.

An' mony a bonnie lass, I ween,
Wi' blushin' cheek an' dooncast e'e,
In bridal gear thy cozie biel
Has left a dautit wife to be.

An' aft frae oot thy lowly door
The dead, wi' reverend hauns, were ta'en
To aul' Cam'nethan's lane kirkyard,
To sleep wi' friends lang ages gane.

An' ilka nicht an' morn were heard
The soun' o' psalms, the voice o' prayer,
By faither raised, an' sweetly joined
By wife an' bairnies roun' him there.

Hoo welcome was the Sabbath rest!
Hoo sweet the Sabbath's holy calm!
On toilin' haun an' weary heart
It fell like heaven's ain blessed balm.

(May Scotland never quat the grip,
But haud her Sabbath firm and fast,
Thro' skaith an' scorn, thro' taunts an' sneers,
An' let them lauch wha win at last.)

Thro' thy wee winnocks, Sheepieknowe,
Fell little sunshine in the cot;
Withoot, the beekin' simmer sun
Lay shadowless upon the spot.

The purple scad o' heather blooms
Fell on the e'e for acres roun';
But peesweep's cry and muirfowl's ca'
Ye wadna heard anither soun'.

A gowany sheet lay on the lea,
Spread by the hauns o' bonnie June;
Ilk simmer morn, on flichterin' wing,
The laverock liltit hie abune.

The wuds o' Murdiestane were green,
An' ringin' wi' the sang-birds' lay;
On Calder's wild an' waunerin' stream
The glintin' sunbeams saftly play.

In dowie mood ae simmer day
Alang the bank an' up the dell
I wandered on. There's something wrang,
I said, but what I canna tell.

A shadow lay upon my heart,
The feydom o' some comin' ill;
I heard a stap, an' leukin' up,
Saw Cousin Hughie o' the Hill.

White as a ghaist, wi' bluidshot een,
He grasp'd an' chirted sair my haun;
"O Hughie!" then I gaspit oot,
"I thocht ye in a foreign lan'."

"To me a' lan's are foreign noo—
Nae hame, nae haud ha'e I on yirth;
In burnin' shame an' bitter wae,
I curse the hour that gi'ed me birth.

"For she, wha's name I canna speak,
The woman that was ance my wife,
Has brocht disgrace upon my name
An' blastit a' my hopes in life.

"Ae year, nae mair, in luve an' bliss,
I spent wi' her when we were wed,
But luve, an' bliss, an' purity,
An' a' the wife should ha'e, have fled.

"I boud to leeve an' gang aboard
As surgeon in a man-o'-war;
Twa years frae hame, yet a' the while
She was my idol an' my star.

"We cam' to port, an' I got leeve,
An' flew on wings o' luve to rush
Into her arms, an' in my face
She leukit up withoot a blush.

"Her crime, like murder, wadna hide;
My frien's had kenn'd ere I cam' hame,
But had nae heart to sen' me word,
Sae bauld was she, e'en in her shame.

"I'll never leuk on her again,
Nor 'gainst my life will raise my haun;
Neist owk I sail to seek for death
By Afric's fever-stricken stran'.

"An' I am here ance mair to see—
Ance mair to tread upon the heather—
The wuds an' braes o' Murdiestane,
Before I lea' them a' thegither."

Like ane entranced I stude the while,
The tears were streaming down my cheek;
"God help and guide thee, cousin dear"—
Anither word I cou'dna speak.

He took my haun again, an' said,
"Fareweel for ever, I maun gae."—
I never saw his face again,
But mourn'd him sair for mony a day.

But ere the heather bloomed again,
An' ere the gowans clad the lea,
He slept intil a foreign grave:
Rest, weary heart! peace, peace to thee!





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