Glen Collection of printed music > Printed text > Harp of Renfrewshire

131
Sweet rural scenes ! unknown to poet's song,
Where nature's charms in rich profusion lie,
Birds, fruits, and flowers, an ever-pleasing throng,
Denied to Britain's bleak and northern sky.
Here Freedom smiles serene with dauntless eye.
And leads the exiled stranger through her groves,
Assists to sweep the forest from on high.
And gives to man the fruitful field he loves.
Where proud imperious lord, or tyrant, never roves.
In these green solitudes one favovxrite spot
Still draws his lone slow wanderings that way,
A mossy cliff", beside a little grot.
Where two clear springs burst out upon the day ;
There, overhead, the beechen branches play,
And from the rock, the clustered columbine;
While, deep below, the brook is seen to stray,
O'erhung with alders, brier, and mantling vine.
While on th' adjacent banks the glossy laurels shine.
Here Milton's heavenly themes delight his soul,
Or Goldsmith's simple heart-bewitching lays,
Now drives with book around the frozen pole.
Or follows Bruce, with marvel and amaze.
Perhaps Rome's splendour sadly he surveys,
Or Britain's scenes of cruelty and kings.
Through Georgia's groves with gentle Bertram strays,
Or mounts with Newton on ai'changel's wings.
With manly SmoUet laughs, and jovial Dibdin sings.
The air serene, and breathing odours sweet.
The sound of falling streams and humming bees,
Wild choirs of songsters round his rural seat.
To souls like his have every power to please.
The shades of night with rising sigh he sees
Obscure the sweet and leafy scene around ;
And, homeward bending, thro' the moonlight trees.
The owl salutes him with her trem'lous sound,
And many a fluttering bat pursues its mazy round.