David Gray (1838-1861). VII. The Luggie. Hunt and Lee, comps. 1867. The Book of the Sonnet

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Hunt and Lee, comps. The Book of the Sonnet. 1867.

VII. The Luggie

By David Gray (1838–1861)


O FOR the days of sweet Mythology,
When dripping Naiads taught their streams to glide!
When, ’mid the greenery, one would ofttimes spy
An Oread tripping with her face aside.
The dismal realms of Dis by Virgil sung,	5
Whose shade led Dante, in his virtue bold,
All the sad grief and agony among,
O’er Acheron, that mournful river old,
Ev’n to the Stygian tide of purple gloom!
Pan in the forest making melody!	10
And far away where hoariest billows boom,
Old Neptune’s steeds with snorting nostrils high!
These were the ancient days of sunny song;
Their memory yet how dear to the poetic throng! 1

Note 1. Speaking of the poems of David Gray (“Poems by David Gray, with Memoirs of his Life, Boston, 1864”), the Rev. W. R. Alger says: “The poems of this ill-fated and winsome young Scotchman, heart-brother of Robert Burns, are marked by rare tenderness and sincerity, and by that fascinating facility of verbal touch which is one of the choicest characteristics of true genius. Such a pure and pathetic story, such lucid and breathing poetry, as we have here, are charged with a blessed ministry for a coarse and bustling age, for a reckless utilitarian people. The feelings of love, pity, and grief this little book is calculated to awaken will exert a salutary influence, softening the heart, and nourishing human sympathy and poetic sentiment.” [back]

CONTENTS · BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

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