In yon greenwood there is a waik, And in that waik there is a wene, And in that wene there is a maike,[175] That neither hath flesh, blood nor bane, And down in yon greenwood he walks his lane! In that grene wene Kilmeny lay Her bosom happed wi' the flowrets gay; And the air was soft, and the silence deep, And bonny Kilmeny fell sound asleep; She kenn'd nae mair, nor opened her ee, Till waked by the hymns of a far countrye, She wakened on couch of the silk sae slim, All striped wi' the bars of the rainbow's rim; And lovely beings around her were rife, Who erst had travelled mortal life. They clasped her waist and her hands sae fair, They kissed her cheek, and they kamed her hair, And round came many a blooming fere, Saying, "Bonny Kilmeny, ye're welcome here." * * * * * They lifted Kilmeny, they led her away, And she walked in the light of a sunless day, The sky was a dome of crystal bright, The fountain of vision, and fountain of light; The emerant fields were of dazzling glow, And the flowers of everlasting blow. Then deep in the stream her body they laid, That her youth and beauty might never fade; And they smiled on heaven, when they saw her lie In the stream of life that wandered by; And she heard a song, she heard it sung, She kenn'd not where, but so sweetly it rung, It fell on her ears like a dream of the morn: "O, blest be the day Kilmeny was born! Now shall the land of spirits see, Now shall it ken what a woman may be! The sun that shines on the world so bright, A borrowed gleam from the fountain of light: And the moon that sleeks the sky sae dun, Like a gowden bow, or a beamless sun, Shall skulk away, and be seen nae mair, And the angels shall miss them travelling the air. But lang, lang after both night and day, When the sun and the world have 'eelged[176] away, When the sinner has gane to his waesome doom, Kilmeny shall smile in eternal bloom!"