The Lady of the Lake: Canto 1
The Lady of the Lake: Canto 1
Original Text
Sir Walter Scott, The Lady of the Lake (Edinburgh: J. Ballantyne, 1810). LE S431ka Fisher Rare Book Library (Toronto).
625 Sleep the sleep that knows not breaking:
626Dream of battled fields no more,
627 Days of danger, nights of waking.
628In our isle's enchanted hall,
629 Hands unseen thy couch are strewing,
630Fairy strains of music fall,
631 Every sense in slumber dewing.
632Soldier, rest! thy warfare o'er,
633Dream of fighting fields no more:
634Sleep the sleep that knows not breaking,
635Morn of toil, nor night of waking.
636No rude sound shall reach thine ear,
637 Armour's clang, or war-steed champing,
638Trump nor pibroch summon here
639 Mustering clan, or squadron tramping.
640Yet the lark's shrill fife may come
641 At the day-break from the fallow,
642And the bittern sound his drum,
643 Booming from the sedgy shallow.
644Ruder sounds shall none be near,
645Guards nor warders challenge here,
646Here's no war-steed's neigh and champing,
647Shouting clans or squadrons stamping.
654Huntsman, rest! thy chase is done,
655 While our slumbrous spells assail ye,
656Dream not, with the rising sun,
657 Bugles here shall sound reveillé.
658Sleep! the deer is in his den;
659 Sleep! thy hounds are by thee lying;
660Sleep! nor dream in yonder glen,
661 How thy gallant steed lay dying.
662Huntsman, rest; thy chase is done,
663Think not of the rising sun,
664For at dawning to assail ye,
665Here no bugles sound reveillé.
Notes
624] From The Lady of the Lake, Canto I, lines 624-647 and 654-665. "Soldier, rest! thy warfare o'er." The Song is represented as sung by the heroine to a strange knight, who, while hunting, has lost himself and found shelter in her father's home on an island in Lake Katrine. Back to Line
Publication Start Year
1810
RPO poem Editors
P. F. Morgan
RPO Edition
3RP 2.417.
Rhyme