Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Scotland: Vols. VI–VIII. 1876–79.

Inverary

Inverary

By James Payn (1830–1898)

PLEASANT woods of Inverary,

Shadowing far o’er lawn and lea,

Music of your summer murmur

Breathes no more for me;

Underneath your stately arches

Yet may dreamer, student, lie,

Poet at his perfect pleasure,—

So no more shall I.

Far beside fair Douglas water

Other charméd feet may stray,

Seeking whence its song beginneth

Half a summer’s day;

Where the ancient archway darkens,

Deeper yet the blood-red line,

Cross the ford, and past the rapid:

Nevermore shall mine.

Dhuloch, queen of inland waters,

Virgin, yet so near allied,

Morn and eve with plaint and tremor

Sought for Ocean’s bride;

Nevermore I woo thine echoes,

Never let the oar-blades glance,

Lightly as the wings of heron,

Not to break thy trance.

Long farewell to Inverary!

Gleams no more the white-walled town,

Fallen is the ancient watch-tower,

Hid Ben Büi’s frown;

Fades the purple of the moorlands,

Fails the lake’s last look of blue

Through the trees of far Arkinglass,

And my heart fails too.