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Home  »  The Book of Georgian Verse  »  Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832)

William Stanley Braithwaite, ed. The Book of Georgian Verse. 1909.

Song: ‘Where shall the lover rest’

Sir Walter Scott (1771–1832)

WHERE shall the lover rest,

Whom the fates sever

From his true maiden’s breast,

Parted forever?

Where, through groves deep and high,

Sounds the far billow,

Where early violets die,

Under the willow.

Eleu loro,

Soft shall be his pillow.

There, through the summer day,

Cool streams are laving;

There, while the tempests sway,

Scarce are boughs waving;

There thy rest shalt thou take,

Parted forever,

Never again to wake,

Never, O never!

Eleu loro,

Never, O never!

Where shall the traitor rest,

He the deceiver,

Who could win maiden’s breast,

Ruin and leave her?

In the lost battle,

Borne down by the flying,

Where mingles war’s rattle

With groans of the dying.

Eleu loro,

There shall he be lying.

Her wing shall the eagle flap

O’er the false-hearted;

His warm blood the wolf shall lap,

Ere life be parted.

Shame and dishonour sit

By his grave ever;

Blessing shall hallow it,—

Never, O never!

Eleu loro,

Never, O never!