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

Ben Lomond

Ben Lomond

By John Mitchell

SOME may delight to spend their hours,

By limpid streamlets fringed with flowers,

But give to me the wilds where towers

Thy rocky crest, Ben Lomond.

Through leafy groves young love may stray,

To sing the joys of rosy May,

But bolder tones must fire his lay

Whose theme ’s the proud Ben Lomond.

Dark clouds upon thy forehead rest,

Red lightnings play around thy crest,

And storm runs riot on thy breast,

Thou heed’st them not, Ben Lomond.

But when gay summer ’s in her prime,

And balmy winds steal o’er our clime,

Who would not dare thy heights sublime

And glory in Ben Lomond!

There far above proud cities we

With wonder filled will lean on thee,

Awed by the gorgeous scenery

That round thee spreads, Ben Lomond.

Sublimity sits throned on thee,

Veiled in the vast profundity

That stills or wakes the inland sea

That bathes thy feet, Ben Lomond.