The Queen's Wake 1
Pilgrims of the Sun 1
The Hunting of Badlewe 1
Mador of the Moor 1
Poetic Mirror 1
Dramatic Tales 2
Brownie of Bodsbeck 2
Winter Evening Tales 2
Sacred Melodies 1
Border Garland 1
Jacobite Relics of Scotland 2
The Spy 1
Queen Hynde 1
The Three Perils of Man 3
The Three Perils of Woman 3
Confessions of a Sinner 1
The Shepherd's Calendar 2
A Selection of Songs 1
The Queer Book 1
The Royal Jubilee 1
The Mountain Bard 1
The Forest Minstrel 1
--
Total 31
--
It may be imagined that while the produce of his literary pen was so
abundant, that of his sheep-pen would hardly bear comparison with it.
That was the case. Hogg continually broke down, as a shepherd and a
farmer. He
"Tended his flocks upon Parnassus hill;"
his imagination was in Fairyland, his heart was in Edinburgh, and his
affairs always went wrong. To give him a certain chance of support,
the Duke of Buccleugh gave him, rent-free for life, a little farm at
Altrive in Yarrow, and then Hogg took a much larger farm on the
opposite side of the river, which he called Mount Benger. From this it
will be recollected that he often dated his literary articles. The
farm was beyond his capital, and far beyond his care. It brought him
into embarrassments. To the last, however, he had Altrive Lake to
retreat to; and here he lived, and wrote, and fished, and shot grouse
on the moors. Let us, before visiting his haunts, take a specimen or
two of his poetry, that we may have a clear idea of the man we have in
view.
In all Hogg's poetry there is none which has been more popular than
the Legend of Kilmeny, in the Queen's Wake. It is the tradition of a
beautiful cottage maiden, who disappears for a time and returns again
home, but, as it were, glorified and not of the earth. She has, for
her purity, been transported to the land of spirits, and bathed in the
river of immortal life.
"They lifted Kilmeny, they led her away,
And she walked in the light of a sunless day:
The sky was a dome of crystal bright,
The fountain of vision and fountain of light:
The emerald fields were of dazzling glow,
And the flowers of everlasting blow.
Then deep in the stream her body they laid,
That her youth and beauty never might fade;
And they smiled on Heaven when they saw her lie
In the stream of life that wandered by.
And she heard a song, she heard it sung,
She kenned not where, but so sweetly it rung,
It fell on her ear like a dream of the morn;
O! blest be the day that Kilmeny was born.
Now shall the land of the spirits see,
Now shall it ken what a woman may be!
The sun that shines on the world sae bright,
A borrowed gleid frae the fountain of light;
And the moon that sleeks the sky sae dun,
Like a gowden bow, or a beamless sun,
Shall wear away, and be seen nae mair,
And the angels shall miss them traveling the air.
But lang, lang after baith night and day,
When the sun and the world have elyed away;
When the sinner has gaed to his waesome doom,
Kilmeny shall smile in eternal bloom!"
But Kilmeny longs once more to revisit the earth and her kindred at
home, and,
"Late, late in a gloaming, when all was still,
When the fringe was red on the westlin hill,
The wood was sere, the moon i' the wane,
The reek of the cot hung over the plain,
Like a little wee cloud in the world its lane;
When the ingle glowed with an eiry leme,
Late, late in the gloaming Kilmeny came hame!
'Kilmeny, Kilmeny, where have you been?
Lang hae we sought baith holt and den;
By linn, by ford, and greenwood tree,
Yet ye are hailsome and fair to see.
Where gat ye that joup o' the lily scheen?
That bonny snood o' the birk sae green?
And these roses, the fairest that ever were seen?
Kilmeny, Kilmeny, where have you been?'
"Kilmeny looked up with a lovely grace,
But nae smile was seen on Kilmeny's face;
As still was her look, and as still was her ee,
As the stillness that lay on the emerant lea,
As the mist that sleeps on a waveless sea.
For Kilmeny had been she knew not where,
And Kilmeny had seen what she could not declare;
Kilmeny had been where the cock ne'er crew,
Where the rain never fell, and the wind never blew!"
But on earth the spell of heaven was upon her. All loved, both man and
beast, the pure and spiritual Kilmeny; but earth could not detain her.
"When a month and a day had come and gone,
Kilmeny sought the greenwood wene;
There laid her down on the leaves so green,
And Kilmeny on earth was never mair seen.
But O the words that fell from her mouth
Were words of wonder, and words of truth!
But all the land were in fear and dread,
For they kennedna whether she was living or dead.
It was not her hame, and she couldna remain;
She left this world of sorrow and pain;
And returned to the land of thought again."
The Legend of Kilmeny is as beautiful as any thing in that department
of poetry. It contains a fine moral; that purity of heart makes an
earthly creature a welcome denizen of heaven; and the tone and imagery
are all fraught with a tenderness and grace that are as unearthly as
the subject of the legend.
There is a short poem introduced into the Brownie of Bodsbeck, worthy
of the noblest bard that ever wrote.