| |
| THE OARS dip, and we lightly skim away, | |
| Leaving behind Dumcruin’s fairy-knowe, | |
| Cone-shaped, and to the summit darkly clad | |
| With bristling pines. Before us, lofty Ben | |
| Towers, green as emerald, in the sunny sky. | 5 |
| |
| Swiftly we dart ’tween islands fair, that gem | |
| The bosom of the loch; a rippling wake, | |
| On which sun-sparkles play, diverging far | |
| On either side. Inch Cailliach, overgrown | |
| With dingle brushwood, copse, and greenery, | 10 |
| Like some enchanted isle, emerges from | |
| The clear blue lake. We thither turn the prow, | |
| And soon the keel, impelled by lusty strokes, | |
| Runs up the sloping sand-beach. Joyously | |
| We leap ashore, and leave the tiny skiff, | 15 |
| To lose ourselves in thickets, fragrant all | |
| With tufted meadow-sweet, bog-myrtle, heath; | |
| And gather blaeberries, till hands and lips | |
| Are deeply stained with the purple juice. | |
| |
| Now gazing on the summit of the isle | 20 |
| From the old kirkyard,—for here, in ancient times, | |
| Mid pibrochs wild, in boats the dead were borne | |
| Across the lake, to sleep their last long sleep. | |
| Lo! what a scene of tranquil loveliness! | |
| Kilpatrick braes and Leven’s verdant slopes, | 25 |
| In gentle undulation, stretch away | |
| Towards the south; while towering in the north, | |
| Benvoirlich and the high Glenfalloch range; | |
| Huge mountain masses, sterile rocky steeps, | |
| With blue crags, bound the distance. Over Luss | 30 |
| And Tarbet lie the heights of Arroquhar, | |
| Loch Long and dark Loch Goil; the Cobbler’s strange | |
| Fantastic peak conspicuous in the view. | |
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