Thomas Campbell - Glenara

O, heard ye yon pibroch sound sad in the gale, <br />Where a band cometh slowly with weeping and wail? <br />'Tis the chief of Glenara laments for his dear; <br />And her sire and her people are called to her bier. <br /> <br />Glenara came first, with the mourners and shroud; <br />Her kinsmen they followed, but mourned not aloud; <br />Their plaids all their bosoms were folded around; <br />They marched all in silence, - they looked on the ground. <br /> <br />In silence they reached, over mountain and moor, <br />To a heath where the oak-tree grew lonely and hoar; <br />'Now here let us place the gray stone of her cairn; - <br />Why speak ye no word?' said Glenara the stern. <br /> <br />'And tell me, I charge ye, ye clan of my spouse, <br />Why fold ye your mantles, why cloud ye your brows?' <br />So spake the rude chieftain; no answer is made. <br />But each mantle, unfolding, a dagger displayed. <br /> <br />'I dreamt of my lady, I dreamt of her shroud.' <br />Cried a voice from the kinsmen, all wrathful and loud; <br />'And empty that shroud and that coffin did seem; <br />Glenara! Glenara! now read me my dream!' <br /> <br />O, pale grew the cheek of that chieftain, I ween, <br />When the shroud was unclosed and no lady was seen; <br />When a voice from the kinsmen spoke louder in scorn, - <br />'Twas the youth who had loved the fair Ellen of Lorn, <br /> <br />'I dreamt of my lady, I dreamt of her grief, <br />I dreamt that her lord was a barbarous chief; <br />On a rock of the ocean fair Ellen did seem; <br />Glenara! Glenara! now read me my dream!' <br /> <br />In dust low the traitor has knelt to the ground, <br />And the desert revealed where his lady was found; <br />From a rock of the ocean that beauty is borne; <br />Now joy to the house of fair Ellen of Lorn.<br /><br />Thomas Campbell<br /><br />http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/glenara/