ROBERT WILLIAMS BUCHANAN (1841 - 1901)

POEMS AND LOVE LYRICS

POEMS

AND

LOVE LYRICS.

BY

ROBT. W. BUCHANAN.

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“While yet a boy I sought for ghosts, and sped
     Through many a listening chamber, cave and ruin,
     And starlight wood, with fearful steps pursuing
Hopes of high talk with the departed dead.
I called on poisonous names with which our youth is fed:
         I was not heard, I saw them not;
         When musing deeply on the lot
Of life, at that sweet time when winds are wooing
         All vital things that wake to bring
         News of birds and blossoming.
         Sudden, thy shadow fell on me;
I shrieked, and clasped my hands in ecstasy.”

                                           SHELLEY’S HYMN TO BEAUTY.

“If all that lives must love or die,
All shapes on earth, or sea, or sky,
With one consent to Heaven cry
That the glory far above
All else in life is—
                     Love, O Love!”

                     CALDERON’S MAGICO PRODIGIOSO.

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GLASGOW: THOMAS MURRAY AND SON.
EDINBURGH: SUTHERLAND AND KNOX.
LONDON: HALL VIRTUE, AND CO.

Dedication.

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TO HUGH MACDONALD, ESQ.,

Author of “RAMBLES ROUND GLASGOW,” “DAYS AT THE COAST,” &c.,

     MY DEAR SIR,

                                   During my necessarily very short and very humble literary career, your conduct has proved altogether the most gratifying, the most kind, and withal the most impartial. Your kindness fostered my first literary efforts, and extended encouragement, when really my own hopes were but faint. Your friendship has throughout been given in frankness, your advice in honesty.
     Accept, then, of these, the first outbursts of a very early muse; and believe that every sentiment that may emanate from a heart of respect and gratitude, must ever pass from me to you. In all admiration for your qualities, literary and social,
                                                       I am,
                                                           My dear Sir,
                                                                 Respectfully yours,
                                                                     ROBT. W. BUCHANAN.

PREFACE.

PERHAPS the author  of the following pages casts his early attempts too boldly on the waters of public criticism. From the rather favourable and indulgent manner in which they have been received by various magazines, periodicals, &c., perhaps he is tempted too rashly to dare the ordeal of public opinion. His present ambitions, however, are humble in the extreme: he is fully aware that time and cultivation are absolutely necessary to the true development of the poetic faculty. He does not even deem this the experimentum crucis of his literary career. Instead of aspiring to the gratification of the many, he aims in this volume merely at the temporary amusement of the few. If he has committed an error, therefore, he hopes that it may be considered a pardonable one. The most mature of these effusions, save the Sonnets, “In Kirkstall Abbey,” “Over the Grave of Wordsworth,” and “Beneath Ben Cruachan,” were penned before he had attained his sixteenth year. The author trusts that the critic will deal with their very many and very obvious demerits gently, and refrain, even though he be inclined to “damn” absolutely, bearing in mind that the “bark of youth” is necessarily more abundant in sail than in ballast. Feeling assured that any little individual merit they may possess will be kindly and honestly acknowledged, the author makes his bow and awaits the result.

                                                                                                                                                   R. W. B.

                                                                                                                                                             vii

CONTENTS.

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                                                                                                                                                     Page

Mary Gurney, .............................................................................................................    1

Absence,.....................................................................................................................   25

Extract from an Unpublished Play,................................................................................    34

Age: Retrospection,.....................................................................................................     49

The Infant’s Grave,......................................................................................................    59

Evangeline,..................................................................................................................    65

Katrine,.......................................................................................................................     69

Happy Love,...............................................................................................................     72

The Lament,................................................................................................................    75

Bereft,.........................................................................................................................     78

Infant Slumber,.............................................................................................................   80

Sonnet, written in Kirkstall Abbey,...............................................................................     82

Mary,..........................................................................................................................    83

Song,...........................................................................................................................     87

A Christmas Lay,.........................................................................................................     89

Sea Storm,...................................................................................................................     91

Rural Courtship,...........................................................................................................     92

Beneath Ben Cruachan,................................................................................................    95     viii

Poverty and Death,......................................................................................................    96

Song,..........................................................................................................................    100

Sonnet: Over the Grave of Wordsworth,......................................................................    103

The Mother,................................................................................................................    104

Sonnet,.......................................................................................................................     106

Sonnet,.......................................................................................................................     107

Colin: a Pastoral,.........................................................................................................     108

Alone,.........................................................................................................................     112

Wooing,......................................................................................................................    116

Doubt,.........................................................................................................................     121

Love’s Heaven,............................................................................................................    123

A Hope,.......................................................................................................................     126

Re-Met,.......................................................................................................................     129

Waiting,........................................................................................................................    132

Isabel,...........................................................................................................................     138

Song,............................................................................................................................    144

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ERRATA.
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In Page 14, line 5, read “No answer, and he merrily tript off.”
 “   “    32, line 4, for “Beauty’s ardent mile,” read smile.
 “   “    55, line 1, verse 2, read “Chaste Hymen’s golden morn again.”
 “   “    78, line 6, verse 1, for not read nought.
 “   “    85, line 3, verse 3, read “In thine early April gladness.”
 “   “    94, line 10, read “The good dame from within the cot.”
 “   “    98, last line, for rage read rag.
 “   “    109, line 1, verse 2, for smiles read breaks.
 “   “    122, line 1, verse 3, read “Ah! Mary, but I would not think.”
 “   “    145, line 2, verse 2, read “On fond lowly knee.”

[Note: The mistakes listed on the Errata slip have been corrected in this version of the text.]

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