Think if thou wert, some evening still, Within thy wood of green Bowhill— Thy native wood!—the forest’s pride! Lover or sister by thy side; In converse sweet the hour to improve Of things below and things above, Of an existence scarce begun, And note the stars rise one by one. Just then, the moon and daylight blending, To see the fairy bands descending, Wheeling and shivering as they came, Like glimmering shreds of human frame; Or sailing, ’mid the golden air, In skiffs of yielding gossamer. O, I would wander forth alone Where human eye hath never shone, Away o’er continents and isles A thousand and a thousand miles, For one such eve to sit with thee, Their strains to hear and forms to see! Absent the while all fears of harm, Secure in Heaven’s protecting arm; To list the songs such beings sung, And hear them speak in human tongue; To see in beauty, perfect, pure, Of human face the miniature, And smile of being free from sin, That had not death impress’d within. Oh, can it ever be forgot What Scotland had, and now has not! Such scenes, dear Lady, now no more Are given, or fitted as before, To eye or ear of guilty dust; But when it comes, as come it must, The time when I, from earth set free, Shall turn the spark I fain would be; If there’s a land, as grandsires tell, Where Brownies, Elves, and Fairies dwell, There my first visit shall be sped— Journeyer of earth, go hide thy head! Of all thy travelling splendour shorn, Though in thy golden chariot borne! Yon little cloud of many a hue That wanders o’er the solar blue, That curls, and rolls, and fleets away Beyond the very springs of day,— That do I challenge and engage To be my travelling equipage, Then onward, onward, far to steer, The breeze of Heaven my charioteer; The soul’s own energy my guide, Eternal hope my all beside. At such a shrine who would not bow! Traveller of earth, where art thou now? Then let me for these legends claim, My young, my honour’d Lady’s name; That honour is reward complete, Yet I must crave, if not unmeet, One little boon—delightful task For maid to grant, or minstrel ask!