A Physician's Poems Author:Robert Bell Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: DUNSTAFFNAGE CASTLE. Dunstaffnage, could thy walls repeat The story of those buried years, When to the tread of royal feet, And that of Scotland's prou... more »dest peers, Thy rude walls echoed when the strains Of merry music's sweet refrains Fired the heart and led the dance, When Highland chiefs and ladies fair Mingled with cavaliers from France, Till oaken floors and rafters bare Shook and trembled with the reel, O'er which there flooded laughter's peal. Then courtiers danced with courtly dames, When oft the embers of esteem Were fanned to those more ardent flames When love steps in and paints the dream, Till on the canvas of their lives Husbands appear as well as wives. But now this canto is complete, I long to hear thy walls repeat The story of those chiefs and kings With which thy battered ruin rings, To learn when first the ancient keep Rose high upon its rocky steep, To yield both shelter and repose To kings and chiefs, when Scotland's foes Deluged the land with noble blood, Till burn and brook and river's flood Ran crimson from the foeman's steel; Yet still brave Scotland would not kneel. She'd fight again to crush the foe Who dared to lay her honour low; For this she reared her sons, that they Might join their fathers in the fray. She nursed them on the lap of war, Mars ever was their guiding star, c Their lullaby wild war's alarms, Their pastime was the crash of arms; And when for sport were at a loss They shouldered high the fiery cross; For to them welcome was the sight When brightly blazed the beacon light, Which told that foemen were at hand, Who dared invade their native land. But hark ! methinks those ruined walls, Those floorless, roofless, doorless halls, Seek their story to unfold, One that's never yet been told. And fain I'd listen to a ta...« less