| Hunt and Lee, comps. The Book of the Sonnet. 1867. | | | | IV. Ben Muichdhui | | By John Stuart Blackie (1809–1895) |
| | | O’ER broad Muichdhui sweeps the keen cold blast; | |
| Far whirrs the snow-bred, white-winged ptarmigan; | |
| Sheer sink the cliffs to dark Loch Etagan, | |
| And all the hill with shattered rock lies waste. | |
| Here brew ship-foundering storms their force divine; | 5 |
| Here gush the fountains of wild-flooding rivers; | |
| Here the strong thunder frames the bolt that shivers | |
| The giant strength of the old twisted pine. | |
| Yet, even here, on the bare waterless brow | |
| Of granite ruin, I found a purple flower, | 10 |
| A delicate flower, as fair as aught, I trow, | |
| That toys with zephyrs in my lady’s bower. | |
| So Nature blends her powers; and he is wise | |
| Who to his strength no gentlest grace denies. | | | | |
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