Books and other items printed in Gaelic from 1871 to 1900 > Gaelic bards, and original poems

DUNCAN BAN MACINTYRE.
65
Throughout the wild fen he dash’d in rapture,
Or near the brown hind more gently play’d—
His charming princess, so strong, so stately,
So spare, so active, so fine, so staid !
In shy recesses the yellow doe crept
Beneath the light twigs, and cropp’d them bare;
While o’er his proud couch the lordly buck stood,
And poked and stamp’d it with gloomy stare :
The little kidling of speckled, smooth side,
Of placid nostril and noble head,
Found sleeping snugly in some lone hollow,
Among the rushes a cosy bed.
How many a light foot, when autumn ripen’d,
Tripp’d gaily over that hill’s brown side,
And sought and shared all the store it offered
With manly kindness and gentle pride !
In a soft round nest they got the honey
Of the small spotted and brindled bee,
That labours, flying from flower to flower,
With lonely murmur and peaceful glee.
There nuts well-season’d—no scanty harvest
Of wither’d kernels—were growing seen
In great abundance ; thin skinn’d, smooth cluster’d,
They’d suck’d the life-juice from branches green,
Where purl’d the streamlet throughout the sweet strath,
And rowans ripen’d their berries red,
And many a sapling, in graceful mantle,
Kept waving gently in new-clad head.
From far, surrounding the lonely desert,
Lay moor and grey glen where small knolls stood,
With shaggy tufts and with warm soft shelter—
Choice spots for wild birds to rear their brood:
Thence from soft couches in May’s sweet morning
Bose up the dun doe and stag of ten ;
While glanced the red light upon the tall sides
Of the rough Corry—the Misty Glen!
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