Poems of Nature, Poems Subjective and Reminiscent and Religious Poems, Complete

A MEMORY

     Here, while the loom of Winter weaves
     The shroud of flowers and fountains,
     I think of thee and summer eves
     Among the Northern mountains.

     When thunder tolled the twilight's close,
     And winds the lake were rude on,
     And thou wert singing, Ca' the Yowes,
     The bonny yowes of Cluden!

     When, close and closer, hushing breath,
     Our circle narrowed round thee,
     And smiles and tears made up the wreath
     Wherewith our silence crowned thee;

     And, strangers all, we felt the ties
     Of sisters and of brothers;
     Ah! whose of all those kindly eyes
     Now smile upon another's?

     The sport of Time, who still apart
     The waifs of life is flinging;
     Oh, nevermore shall heart to heart
     Draw nearer for that singing!

     Yet when the panes are frosty-starred,
     And twilight's fire is gleaming,
     I hear the songs of Scotland's bard
     Sound softly through my dreaming!

     A song that lends to winter snows
     The glow of summer weather,—
     Again I hear thee ca' the yowes
     To Cluden's hills of heather

     1854.