They bore her far to a mountain green, To see what mortal never had seen; And they seated her high on a purple sward, And bade her heed what she saw and heard, And note the changes the spirits wrought, For now she lived in the land of thought. She look'd, and she saw nor sun nor skies, But a crystal dome of a thousand dyes: She look'd, and she saw nae land aright, But an endless whirl of glory and light: And radiant beings went and came, Far swifter than wind, or the linked flame. She hid her e'en frae the dazzling view; She look'd again, and the scene was new. She saw a sun on a summer sky, And clouds of amber sailing bye; A lovely land beneath her lay, And that land had glens and mountains gray; And that land had valleys and hoary piles, And marled seas, and a thousand isles. Its fields were speckled, its forests green, And its lakes were all of the dazzling sheen, Like magic mirrors, where slumbering lay The sun and the sky and the cloudlet gray; Which heaved and trembled, and gently swung, On every shore they seem'd to be hung; For there they were seen on their downward plain A thousand times and a thousand again; In winding lake and placid firth, Little peaceful heavens in the bosom of earth. Kilmeny sigh'd and seem'd to grieve, For she found her heart to that land did cleave; She saw the corn wave on the vale, She saw the deer run down the dale; She saw the plaid and the broad claymore, And the brows that the badge of freedom bore; And she thought she had seen the land before. She saw a lady sit on a throne, The fairest that ever the sun shone on! A lion lick'd her hand of milk, And she held him in a leish of silk; And a leifu' maiden stood at her knee, With a silver wand and melting e'e; Her sovereign shield till love stole in, And poison'd all the fount within. Then a gruff untoward bedesman came, And hundit the lion on his dame; And the guardian maid wi' the dauntless e'e, She dropp'd a tear, and left her knee; And she saw till the queen frae the lion fled, Till the bonniest flower of the world lay dead; A coffin was set on a distant plain, And she saw the red blood fall like rain; Then bonnie Kilmeny's heart grew sair, And she turn'd away, and could look nae mair. Then the gruff grim carle girn'd amain, And they trampled him down, but he rose again; And he baited the lion to deeds of weir, Till he lapp'd the blood to the kingdom dear; And weening his head was danger-preef, When crown'd with the rose and clover leaf, He gowl'd at the carle, and chased him away To feed wi' the deer on the mountain gray. He gowl'd at the carle, and geck'd at Heaven, But his mark was set, and his arles given. Kilmeny a while her e'en withdrew; She look'd again, and the scene was new.