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

Glen Moriston

Glen Moriston

By Cora Kennedy Aitken

A STRETCH of sky all black and threatening,

And opposite a sky as bright as gold;

A mountain where the burning rowans cling,

Half lit with life, half shadowy and cold.

Beneath two rugged lines of rock, that hold

Atwixt them a wild river, hurled along

With all its foaming life-blood poured among

The sombre stones whereon leans heather bold,

Whose crimson palms, dipped reckless in the stream,

Can hardly struggle to the shore again.

Oak-trees and laurels wandering down the glen;

In all the air a pale bewildered gleam

Of sunlight moving lonely through a haze

Of rain, whose measured music fills the days.