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Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Scotland: Vols. VI–VIII. 1876–79.

Ben Lomond

Ben Lomond

By Thomas Campbell (1777–1844)

HADST thou a genius on thy peak,

What tales, white-headed Ben,

Couldst thou of ancient ages speak,

That mock the historian’s pen!

Thy long duration makes our lives

Seem but so many hours;

And likens to the bees’ frail hives

Our most stupendous towers.

Temples and towers thou ’st seen begun,

New creeds, new conquerors’ sway;

And, like their shadows in the sun,

Hast seen them swept away.

Thy steadfast summit, heaven-allied,

Unlike life’s little span,

Looks down, a Mentor on the pride

Of perishable man.