14. Each according pause. That is, each pause in the singing. In
Marmion, ii. 11, according is used of music that fills the intervals of
other music:
"Soon as they neared his turrets strong,
The maidens raised Saint Hilda's song,
And with the sea-wave and the wind
Their voices, sweetly shrill, combined,
And made harmonious close;
Then, answering from the sandy shore,
Half-drowned amid the breakers' roar,
According chorus rose."
The MS. reads here:
"At each according pause thou spokest aloud
Thine ardent sympathy sublime and high."
28. The stag at eve had drunk his fill. The metre of the poem proper
is iambic, that is, with the accent on the even syllables, and
octosyllabic, or eight syllables to the line.
29. Monan's rill. St. Monan was a Scotch martyr of the fourth century.
We can find no mention of any rill named for him.
31. Glenartney. A valley to the north-east of Callander, with
Benvoirlich (which rises to the height of 3180 feet) on the north, and
Uam-Var (see 53 below) on the south, separating it from the valley of
the Teith. It takes its name from the Artney, the stream flowing through
it.
32. His beacon red. The figure is an appropriate one in describing this
region, where fires on the hill-tops were so often used as signals in
the olden time. Cf. the Lay, iii. 379:
"And soon a score of fires, I ween,
From height, and hill, and cliff, were seen,
Each with warlike tidings fraught;
Each from each the signal caught," etc.
34. Deep-mouthed. Cf. Shakespeare, 1 Hen. VI. ii. 4. 12: "Between
two dogs, which hath the deeper mouth;" and T. of S. ind. 1. 18: "the
deep-mouthed brach" (that is, hound).
The MS. reads:
"The bloodhound's notes of heavy bass
Resounded hoarsely up the pass."
35. Resounded... rocky. The poet often avails himself of "apt
alliteration's artful aid," as here, and in the next two lines; most
frequently in pairs of words.
38. As Chief, etc. Note here, as often, the simile put BEFORE that
which it illustrates,--an effective rhetorical, though not the logical,
arrangement.