JAMES HOGG

When she spake of the lovely forms she had seen,

And a land where sin had never been;

A land of love and a land of light,

Withouten sun, or moon, or night;

Where the river swa'd a living stream,

And the light a pure celestial beam ;

The land of vision, it would seem,

A still, an everlasting dream.

In yon green-wood there is a waik, And in that waik there is a wene,

And in that wene there is a maike, That neither has flesh, blood, nor bane ; And down in yon green-wood he walks his lane.

In that green wene Kilmeny lay, Her bosom happ'd wi' flowerets gay; But the air was soft and the silence deep, And bonnie Kilmeny fell sound asleep. She kenn'd nae mair, nor open'd her e'e, Till waked by the hymns of a far countrye.

She 'waken'd on a couch of the silk sae slim, All striped wi' the bars of the rainbow's rim ; And lovely beings round were rife, Who erst had traveled mortal life; And aye they smiled and 'gan to speer, 'What spirit has brought this mortal here?'

<Lang have I journey'd, the world wide/ A meek and reverend fere replied ; ' Baith night and day I have watch'd the fair, Eident a thousand years and mair.

swa'd] swelled. waik] a row of deep damp grass. wene^

? whin, a furze-bush. maike] a mate, match, equal. his

lane] alone, by himselC happ'd] covered* speer] inquire

fere] fellow. eident] unintermittently.

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