Lady of the Lake

The name and state of Ellen's sire.
Well showed the elder lady's mien, 
That courts and cities she had seen;

Ellen, though more her looks displayed
The simple grace of silvan maid,
In speech and gesture, form and face,
Showed she was come of gentle race. 

'Twere strange in ruder rank to find
Such looks, such manners, and such mind.

Each hint the Knight of Snowdoun gave,
Dame Margaret heard with silence grave;

Or Ellen, innocently gay, 
Turned all inquiry light away:
'Weird women we—by dale and down
We dwell, afar from tower and town.

We stem the flood, we ride the blast,
On wandering knights our spells we cast; 
While viewless minstrels touch the string,
'Tis thus our charmed rimes we sing.'

She sung, and still a harp unseen
Filled up the symphony between.

XXXI

SONG

'Soldier, rest! thy warfare o'er, 
Sleep the sleep that knows no breaking;
Dream of battled fields no more,
Days of danger, nights of waking.

In our isle's enchanted hall,
Hands unseen thy couch are strewing, 
Fairy strains of music fall,
Every sense in slumber dewing.

Soldier, rest! thy warfare o'er,
Dream of fighting fields no more;
Sleep the sleep that knows not breaking, 
Morn of toil, nor night of waking.

'No rude sound shall reach thine ear,
Armor's clang, or war-steed champing,
Trump nor pibroch summon here
Mustering clan, or squadron tramping. 

Yet the lark's shrill fife may come
At the day-break from the fallow,
And the bittern sound his drum,
Booming from the sedgy shallow.

Ruder sounds shall none be near, 
Guards nor warders challenge here,
Here's no war-steed's neigh and champing,
Shouting clans or squadrons stamping.'

XXXII

She paused—then, blushing, led the lay
To grace the stranger of the day. 

Her mellow notes awhile prolong
The cadence of the flowing song,
Till to her lips in measured frame
The minstrel verse spontaneous came.

SONG—(Continued)