Blair Collection > Selections from the Gaelic bards

240 IIEBRIMAN SKETCHES.
And shriek thy worst through congenial gloom ;
The dark-robed night, the bitter cold are thine,
And the wide solitude afar and near,
That,, like a baffled demon, hears thee "cry.
Oh ! the wayfarer — oh ! the ill-housed poor —
Oh ! the tried sailor near the spray-clad shore.
While thou dost revel through the awful shade,
Now bellowing wrath, now wailing hideous woe,
Now piercing through the soul as if thou wert
A frightful outbreak of immense despair.
'Tis good to hear thee in a warm retreat,
Sheltered secure within the well-closed door,
Safe from the skiey and the thick-stored gloom,
And stormy terrors of primeval night.
THE ISLANDER'S GUIDING STAR.
The following verses were suggested by reading the beautiful
and well known lines, on the same subject, composed in Gaelic
by Dr. John Macleod of Morven : —
Black was the night — the waves were black,
And black the gloom of heaven ;
Loud blew the storm, and fast the rack
By the swift winds was driveu.
'T was then a veil came o'er the Isle
Of green and level lea,
Which lies full many a heaving mile
Out in the western sen :
A veil that round its every bay
With deepening darkness sped —
And spread where lone and far away,
One boat the tempest fled.