Classic Poem

I

Shrined among their crystal seas,
Thus I saw the Hebrides:

All the land with verdure dight;
All the heavens flushed with light;

Purple jewels 'neath the tide;
Hill and meadow glorified;

Beasts at ease and birds in air;
Life and beauty everywhere!

Shrined amid their crystal seas, —
Thus I saw the Hebrides.

II

Fading in the sunset smile, —
Thus I left the Holy Isle;

Saw it slowly fade away,
Through the mist of parting day;

Saw its ruins, grim and old,
And its bastions, bathed in gold;

Rifted crag and snowy beach,
Where the seagulls swoop and screech,

Vanish, and the shadows fall,
To the lonely curlew's call.

Fading in the sunset smile, —
Thus I left the Holy Isle.

III

As Columba, old and ill,
Mounted on the sacred hill,

Raising hands of faith and prayer,
Breathed his benediction there,

Stricken with its solemn grace —
Thus my spirit blessed the place:

O'er it while the ages range,
Time be blind and work no change!

On its plenty be increase!
On its homes perpetual peace!

While around its lonely shore
Wild winds rave and breakers roar,

Round its blazing hearths be blent
Virtue, comfort, and content!

On its beauty, passing all,
Ne'er may blight nor shadow fall!

Ne'er may vandal foot intrude
On its sacred solitude!

May its ancient fame remain
Glorious, and without a stain!

And the hope that ne'er departs,
Live within its loving hearts!

IV

Slowly fades the sunset light,
Slowly round me falls the night.

Gone the Isle, and distant far
All its loves and glories are:

Yet forever, in my mind,
Still will sigh the wand'ring wind,

And the music of the seas,
'Mid the lonely Hebrides.