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 lives in the land of thought. She looked, and she saw nor sun nor skies, But a crystal dome of a thousand dyes: She looked, 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 linkèd flame. She hid her e’en frae the dazzling view; She looked again, and the scene was new. She saw a sun in a summer sky, And clouds of amber sailing by; A lovely land beneath her lay, And that land had lakes and mountains grey; 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 shining lay, The sun, and the sky, and the cloudlet grey; Which heaved and trembled and gently swung, On every shore they seemed 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, Like peaceful heavens in the bosom of earth. Kilmeny sighed and seemed to grieve, For she found her heart to that land did cleave; She saw the corn wave in 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 licked 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 poisoned 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 dropped a tear, and left her knee; And she saw till the queen frae the lion fled, Till the bonniest flower o’ the world lay dead; A coffin was set on a distant plain, And she saw the red blood fall like rain; Then bonny Kilmeny’s heart grew sair, And she turned away, and could look nae mair. Then the gruff, grim carle girned amain, And they trampled him down, but he rose again; And he bated the lion to deeds of weir, Till he lapped the blood to the kingdom dear; And, weening his head was danger preef, When crowned with the rose and clover leaf, He gowled at the carle, and chased him away, To feed wi’ the deer on the mountain grey. He gowled at the carl, and he gecked at heaven, But his mark was set and his arles given, Kilmeny a while her e’en withdrew; She looked again, and the scene was new.