Poetry > Lady of the lake

24
THE LADY OF THE LAKE.
Canto I.
When lay of hopeless love, or glory won,
Aroused the fearful, or subdued the proud.
At each according pause was heard aloud1
Thine ardent symphony sublime and high !
Fair dames and crested chiefs attention bow’d;
For still the burden of thy minstrelsy
Was Knighthood’s dauntless deed, and Beauty’s
matchless eye.
0 wake once more! how rude soe’er the hand
That ventures o’er thy magic maze to stray;
0 wake once more ! though scarce my skill command
Some feeble echoing of thine earlier lay :
Though harsh and faint, and soon to die away,
And all unworthy of thy nobler strain,
Yet if one heart throb higher at its sway,
The wizard note has not been touched in vain.
Then silent be no more! Enchantress, wake again!
T.
The stag at eve had drunk his fill,
Where danced the moon on Monan’s rill,
And deep his midnight lair had made
In lone Glenartney’s hazel shade;
1 [MS.—“At each according pause thou spokest aloud
Thine ardent sympathy.”]