Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Scotland: Vols. VI–VIII. 1876–79.
The Rose of Seaton Vale
By John Imlah (1799–1846)A
As sweet a bud, I trow,
As ever breathed the morning air,
Or drank the evening dew.
A Zephyr loved the blushing flower,
With sigh and fond love-tale;
It wooed within its briery bower
The Rose of Seaton Vale.
This bud at morning light;
At noon it fanned its glowing breast,
And nestled there at night.
But other flowers sprung up thereby,
And lured the roving gale;
The Zephyr left to droop and die
The Rose of Seaton Vale.
Loved by as fair a youth;
Long had their young hearts throbbed as one
Wi’ tenderness and truth.
Thy warmest tear, soft Pity, pour,—
For Ellen’s type and tale
Are in that sweet, ill-fated flower,
The Rose of Seaton Vale.