Blair Collection > Poems and songs

24 GAELIC AND ENGLISH POEMS.
The costly diamonds in thine hair
Are gleaming in each golden braid,
Thy form so stately, gayly draped
With costly velvet and brocade ;
Whilst I alone upon the hill
The wild rose in my hair do twine ;
I fain would ask thee, lady fair,
Hast thou a nobler soul than mine ?
I love my God, I love my queen,
My friend, my country, all my race :
I fear for nought, I've stood serene
When death had met me face to face.
I'd on my foe no vengeance wreak,
I'd scorn an action that was mean,
I would not tread upon a worm,
Nor would I cringe before a queen.
No gold have I, no costly gems.
No servile host my smile to woo,
My riches are the wealth of love
I daily get from not a few.
Away in yonder old grey church,
As we one day sat side by side,
I thought about the social gulf
That widely did us twain divide.
And yet the gulf yawns not so wide,
But fools may bridge it with their gold ;
How oft to an aspiring " Jeames '
Has Lady " Angeline " been sold.
But if beneath thy costly robe
Thy heart beats true, with kindness fraught,
If innate greatness fills thy soul
With high resolve and lofty thought,
Then, standing on the ground of mind,
The gulf is spanned 'twixt thee and me ;
In heart and soul the peasant girl
Dares to claim sisterhood with thee.