ON REVISITING DUNOLLY CASTLE. 361 XXV. ON REVISITING DUNOLLY CASTLE.* (See former series, "Yarrow Revisited," &c., p. 281.) THE captive Bird was gone;-to cliff or moor Of art mosaic, in a roofless floor,1 An Eagle with stretched wings, but beamless eye- That towering courage, and the savage deeds Those times were proud of, take Thou too a share, 1835. Their towering courage, and the savage deeds MS. This ingenious piece of workmanship, as I afterwards learned, had been executed for their own amusement by some labourers employed about the place.-W. W., 1835. Not undeserved, of the memorial rhymes That animate my way where'er it leads! Lieutenant-Colonel M'Dougal of Dunolie writes to me (October 1883) that "the mosaic picture of an eagle-if it may be called so-still exists, though it is rather a rude work of art. I believe it was executed by a gardener, who was here about the time of Wordsworth's visit. It was made of small stones, and is now a good deal overgrown with weeds, moss, &c., as the second story of the old ruin is open to the weather. An eagle was for many years kept in a cage, made against a wall of the ruin, and this no doubt was the cause of the rude picture being made."-ED. XXVI. THE DUNOLLY EAGLE. NOT to the clouds, not to the cliff, he flew ; Look to thy plumage and thy life!The roe, Balanced in ether he will never tarry, Eyeing the sea's blue depths. Poor Bird! even so That clings to slavery for its own sad sake. 1 1855. Ye tame villatic Fowl. MS WRITTEN IN A BLANK LEAF OF MACPHERSON'S OSSIAN. 363 From hope and promise, self-betrayed. were, I am sorry to say, suggested from apprehensions of the fate of my friend, H. C.,† the subject of the verses addressed to H. C. when six years old. The piece to "Memory" arose out of similar feelings.+] OFT have I caught, upon a fitful breeze,1 Fragments of far-off melodies, With ear not coveting the whole, A part so charmed the pensive soul: Nor felt a wish that heaven would show The image of its perfect bow. What need, then, of these finished Strains? Away with counterfeit Remains! An abbey in its lone recess, A temple of the wilderness, Wrecks though they be, announce with feeling 1 1832. caught from fitful breeze 1827. * This Poem was first published amongst the Poems of Sentiment and Reflection in the edition of 1827. In the edition of 1836 Wordsworth gave 1824 as the year of its composition.-ED. + Hartley Coleridge.-ED. See p. 104.-ED. 364 WRITTEN IN A BLANK LEAF OF MACPHERSON'S OSSIAN. Spirit of Ossian! if imbound In language thou may'st yet be found, If aught (intrusted to the pen Or floating on the tongues of men, In concert with memorial claim Of old grey stone, and high-born name Where moans the blast, or beats the wave, Let Truth, stern arbitress of all, Interpret that Original, And for presumptuous wrongs atone;- Time is not blind;-yet He, who spares Pyramid pointing to the stars, On all that marked the primal flight Of the poetic ecstasy Into the land of mystery. No tongue is able to rehearse One measure, Orpheus! of thy verse ;* Musæus, stationed with his lyre Supreme among the Elysian quire, Is, for the dwellers upon earth Mute as a lark ere morning's birth.† Why grieve for these, though past away *The Genuine Orphic Literature includes some Hymns, a Theogony, Oracles, Songs, and Sacred Legends, iepòɩ Adyoɩ: but none have come down to modern times. The Orphica which have survived are spurious.—ED. None of the fragments attributed to Musæus by the ancients-the Χρησμοί, Υποθῆκαι, Θεογονία, &c.-have survived. ED. WRITTEN IN A BLANK LEAF OF MACPHERSON'S OSSIAN. 365 1 When thousands, by severer doom, Have sunk, at Nature's call; or strayed Hail, Bards of mightier grasp! on you 1832. Dropped from the lenient cloud of years. Brothers in soul! though distant times. Stand Compare "There is an Eminence,-of these our hills 1827. Vol. II. p. 161.—Ed. |