Scottish Poetry Selection
- The Highlands Swelling Blue

Here is a poem by Lord Byron (1788-1824) whose parents owned Gight Castle in Aberdeenshire - until his father dissipated the family fortune.


The Highlands Swelling Blue

He who first met the Highlands swelling blue
Will love each peak that shows a kindred hue,
Hail in each crag a friend's familiar face,
And clasp the mountain in his mind's embrace.
Long have I roamed through lands which are not mine.
Adored the Alp and loved the Apennine,
Revered Parnassus and beheld the steep
Jove's Ida and Olympus crown the deep.
But t'was not all long ages' lore, nor all
Their nature held me in their thrilling thrall;
The infant rapture still survived the boy,
And Loch-na-gar with Ida look'd o'er Troy.
Mix'd Celtic memories with Phrygian mount,
And Highland linns with Castalie's clear fount.
Forgive me, Homer's universal shade,
Forgive me, Phoebus, that my fancy stray'd;
The north and nature taught me to adore
Your scenes sublime, from those beloved before.

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