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TO A SCOTTISH FRIEND by WILLIAM WATSON

Poet Analysis

First Line: AROUND YOUR NORTHERN HOME, WHERE NEVER CEASE
Last Line: VALOUR UNDROOPED, AND MANHOOD UNDECAYED.
Subject(s): SCOTLAND; WAR;

A ROUND your northern home, where never cease
The ebb and flow of Nith, whose waters glide
Rich with their memories of the Muse; whose tide,
In haunts of moorfowl and the wandering fleece,
Down by Caerlaverock beyond old Dumfries,
To Solway brings its dowry, like a bride;
There do the lowland mothers mourn with pride
The lowland sons, whom War hath lapped in Peace.
But you -- be nobly gladsome, seeing that what
Was great aforetime still disdains to fade:
The spirit perfervid of the heroic Scot,
Its fire unlulled, and hardly in earth allayed:
The ancient native prowess unforgot,
Valour undrooped, and manhood undecayed.



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