STERN, rugged pile! thy scowl recalls the days Of foray and of feud, when, long ago, Homes were thought worthy of reproach or praise Only as yielding safeguards from the foe: Over thy gateways the armorial arms Proclaim of doughty Douglases, who held Thy towers against the foe, and thence repell'd Oft, after efforts vain, invasion's harms. Eve dimm'd the hills, as, by the Tweed below, We sat where once thy blossomy orchards smiled, And yet where many an apple-tree grows wild, Listening the blackbird, and the river's flow; While, high between us and the sunset glow, Thy giant walls seem'd picturesquely piled. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ON LORD HOLLAND'S SEAT NEAR MARGATE, KENT by THOMAS GRAY SOMETIMES by THOMAS SAMUEL JONES JR. A SOUL; A STUDY by CHRISTINA GEORGINA ROSSETTI SONNET: 5 by WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE PROTHALAMION by EDMUND SPENSER ODES: BOOK 1: ODE 10. TO THE MUSE by MARK AKENSIDE LEANDER DROWNED by PHILIP AYRES THE ELDER'S WARNING; A LAY OF THE CONVOCATION by WILLIAM EDMONSTOUNE AYTOUN |