Poetry by Sir Walter Scott and William Collins
Breathes There The Man, by Sir Walter Scott
How Sleep The Brave, by William Collins
Breathes There The Man
By Sir Walter Scott
Breathes there the man with soul so dead
Who never to himself hath said,
This is my own, my native land!
Whose heart hath ne'er within him burned,
As home his footsteps he hath turned
From wandering on a foreign strand?
If such there breathe, go, mark him well;
For him no minstrel raptures swell;
High though his titles, proud his name,
Boundless his wealth as wish can claim,
Despite those titles, power, and pelf,
The wretch, concentred all in self,
Living, shall forfeit fair renown,
And, doubly dying, shall go down
To the vile dust from whence he sprung,
Unwept, unhonored, and unsung.
Sir Walter Scott, 1771-1832 was born into the Edinburgh family of Scott. When he was about two, after a brief illness, he lost the use of one of his legs. Thinking that country life would help, he was sent to his grandfather's farm at Sandy-Knowe where he spent his days listening to stories of Scotsmen. He soon recovered enough to scamper about in the country side, but was lame.
To the gentler qualities of his nature was joined not a little of the hardihood of the Scotch heroes whose lives he has celebrated. With an influence as strong and wholesome as that of his works as a writer, remains the example of his loyal, industrious life.
How Sleep The Brave. by William Collins
How sleep the brave, who sink to rest
By all their country's wishes blessed!
When Spring, with dewy fingers cold,
Returns to deck their hallowed mould,
She there shall dress a sweeter sod
than Fancy's feet have ever trod.
By fairy hands their knell is rung;
by forms unseen their dirge is sung;
There Honor comes, a pilgrim gray,
To bless the turf that wraps their clay;
And Freedom shall awhile repair,
To dwell a weeping hermit there!
1721 to 1759, English poet. He was one of the great lyricists of the 18th cent. While he was still at Oxford he published Persian Ecologues (1742), which was written when he was 17. Unstable and weak-willed, he never chose a profession and was constantly in debt until he inherited money from an uncle. He won no popularity during his lifetime, and his career was curtailed by insanity. A precursor of the 19th-century romantics, Collins wrote exquisite verse that emphasized mood and imagination.
