For other versions of this work, see Glenara.
Modern reciter (1829)
Glenara by Thomas Campbell
3236423Modern reciter — Glenara1829Thomas Campbell


Glenara.

Oh! heard ye yon pibroch sound sad in the gale,
Where a band cometh slowly it weeping and wail?
'Tis the Chief of Glenara laments for his dear;
And her sire and her people are called to her bier.

Glenara came first with the mourners and shroud;
Her kinsmen they follow'd but mourned not aloud;
Their plaids all their bosoms were folded around;
They march'd all in silence—they look'd to the ground.

In silence they reach'd over mountain and moor,
To a heath, where the oak-tree grew lonely and hoar,
'Now here let us place the gray-stone of her cairn-
Why speak ye no word?' said Glenara the stern.

'And tell me, I charge you, ye clan of my spouse,
Why fold ye your mantles, why cloud ye your brows?'
So spake the rude chieftain: no answer is made,
But each mantle unfolding, a dagger display'd.

'I dream'd of my lady, I dreamed of her shroud,'
Cried a voice from the kinsmen, all wrathful and loud;
'And empty that shroud and that coffin did seem;
Glenara! Glenara! now read me my dream!'

Oh! pale grew the cheek of the chieftain I ween;
When the shroud was unclosed, and no body was seen;
On a rock of the ocean fair Ellen did seem:
Glenara! Glenara! now read me my dream!'

In dust low the traitor has knelt to the ground,
And the desert reveal'd where his lady was found;
From a rock of the ocean that beauty is borne;
Now joy to the house of fair Ellen of Lorn!

Campbell.


This work was published before January 1, 1929, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.

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