4. Forest, Ettrick Forest. wede, S., weeded out. This line and the Scottish air associated with it are ancient.

5. bught, S., sheepfold, especially a pen for confining the ewes at milking time.

6. dowie, S., dreary. The word occurs in the title of a wellknown Scottish ballad, The Dowie Dens of Yarrow. It is connected with 'dull' and ' 'dully.'

'sad.'

wae, adjective as well as substantive in Scottish, 'woful,'

7. daffin', S., joking. R. L. Stevenson in Kidnapped uses 'to daff' for 'to play the fool.' Cp. Burns, Twa Dogs, "Until wi' daffin' weary grown, Upon a knowe they sat them down."

gabbin', jesting. "To gab' is common in O. E. in two senses, 'to scoff' and to tell lies.' It is uncertain whether the word is Teutonic or adopted from O.F.

10. lyart, S., grizzled, having grey hairs mixed with others.

11. preaching. For many generations the preaching or sermon has been the most conspicuous feature of a Scotch religious service, and such services have been the occasion of large gatherings in the country districts. This was doubtless the case before the Reformation as well as since.

fleeching, S., coaxing. Cp. Burns, Duncan Gray (XIII. 9), "Duncan fleech'd and Duncan pray'd."

13. gloaming, evening twilight. This substantive-like the verb 'to gloam,' to grow dark-is chiefly found in Scotch writers, but is apparently of English origin and connected with 'glow and gloom. The word gloaming is still used in the Yorkshire dialect.

younkers, young men. The word is used by Shakespeare, as in the passage quoted in note to No. 8. 71-76.

14. bogle, ghost, goblin, common in Scottish literature since 1500. 'Bogey' and 'boggard' are kindred words. Tennyson, Northern Farmer, uses boggle' as the Lincolnshire form.

·

17. Dool or dole, mourning'; an old word revived in modern literary English. It came through the French from the Latin root of doleo, to grieve; the modern French deuil is the same word. For the omission of the relative in this line cp. Sir W. Scott's Outlaw (G. T., CCXIII. 3, 4), "And you may gather garlands there Would grace a summer queen."

Border, between Scotland and England.

19. Forest, foremost. In this line, as in 1. 1 and 21, we have an assonance instead of a rhyme.

12. Thy braes were bonny, Yarrow stream

JOHN LOGAN (1748-1788) was a Scottish minister and man of letters. He was probably the author of the Ode to the Cuckoo often attributed to his friend Michael Bruce.

In this poem, as in the two that immediately precede it in this collection, we may see the romantic movement that marks the closing years of the eighteenth century already beginning. There is the sense of a sweet, strange pathos in "Old, unhappy, far-off things"; and there is that "subtle aroma of place-names" which Sir Walter Scott was to reveal to so many. Yarrow," says Principal Shairp in his Aspects of Poetry (Lecture on The Three Yarrowe) is "the inner sanctuary of the whole Scottish border." "Ballad after ballad comes down loaded with a dirge like wail for some sad event, made still sadder for that it befell in Yarrow." One of the most familiar traditions was of some comely youth either drowned by accident in Yarrow or murdered by a jealous rival and flung into the stream. This latter legend was commemorated in another eighteenth century ballad "in the ancient Scots manner," the "Busk ye, busk ye, my bonny, bonny bride" of William Hamilton of Bangour. The other legend, of accidental death, was followed by Logan and the unknown author of the poem that follows (No. 13). Wordsworth had read both Hamilton and Logan: he quotes Hamilton in "Fair hangs the apple frae the rock" (G. T., cccv.) and Logan in "The water-wraith ascended thrice, And gave his doleful warning" (G. T., CCCVI.).

Metre.-Observe the trochaic or feminine ending of the second line of each couplet. The Yarrow ballads generally have this rhythm, and obtain a powerfully pathetic as well as musical effect by the use of the name "Yarrow" as a rhyme word.

1. bonny, handsome, fair, blithe. A corruption of the French bonne, fem. of bon, 'good.'

8. The real Flower of Yarrow' was Mary Scott of Dryhope, wife of Wat of Harden. Logan has borrowed the title for his unfortunate lover, and Wordsworth follows him (G. T., cccvi. 25-6) "Where was it that the famous Flower Of Yarrow Vale lay bleeding?"

12. squire, attend as a squire or knight. The verb is used by Chaucer. Squire, or Esquire comes through the French from the Latin scutiger, shield-bearer.

66

15. The metaphor in this line is a favourite one with the great tragedians. Cp. Sophocles, Antigone, 804 Tayкoiтηv áλaμov" the bridal bed where all must sleep," and 816 'Axépovтi vuμpeúσw “I shall be the bride of Death."

23. water-wraith. A wraith (Scandinavian word) was an apparition in the likeness of a person supposed to be seen just before or just after his death. See the wonderful description of the wraith of King James I. of Scotland in Rossetti's King's Tragedy. Compare also Scott in Rosabelle (G. T., CCLXXXI. 11, 12), Campbell in Lord Ullin's Daughter (G. T., ccxxv. 26), Wordsworth in Yarrow Visited (G.T., cccvi. 31, 32).

30. thorough, the old form of the preposition, now retained only for the adjective.

42. marrow, old and provincial English and Scottish, possibly a corruption of French mari, from Lat. maritus, a husband; generally a husband,' but sometimes in the wider sense of 'companion' which Wordsworth adopts in Yarrow Unvisited (G. T., cccv. 6).

13. Down in yon garden sweet and gay

"THE Editor has found no authoritative text of this poem, to his mind superior to any other of its class in melody and pathos. Part is probably not later than the seventeenth century: in other stanzas a more modern hand, much resembling Scott's, is traceable. Logan's poem [No. 12] exhibits a knowledge rather of the old legend than of the old verses (F. T. P.).

وو

Metre. See note to preceding poem. Observe the irregular scansion of 1. 5: the first foot is monosyllabic instead of dissyllabic: in other words, there is a pathetic lingering on the first syllable of the line. The rhyme in the middle of lines 5 and 25 is another pathetic touch, the recurring sound having the same plaintive effect as the repetition of the lover's name.

7. hecht, S., promised. It also means 'called,' as in Douglas' Virgil, "There was an ancient cieté hecht Cartage. It is the same word as the old English hight, which likewise has these two meanings. Cp. Chaucer, Wife of Bath's Tale, "He had held his way as he had hight."

17. lav'rock, S., lark. Cp. Burns, Lament of Mary Queen of Scots, "Now lav'rocks wake the merry morn Aloft on dewy wing. 20. Leader haughs, the valley meadows by the side of the river Leader. Cp. Wordsworth in Yarrow Unvisited (G. T., cccv. 17):

32. twined o', S., parted from. Cp. the old ballad, Fine flowers in the valley:

"She's ta'en out her little penknife,

(Fine flowers in the valley):

And twin'd the sweet babe o' its life,

(And the green leaves they grow rarely)."

38. braid and narrow.

Such antithetical expressions are a common feature of ballad poetry, and their meaning must not be pressed. But this phrase seems to have a special propriety here broadly, far and wide; narrowly, carefully.

14. Toll for the brave

"THIS little poem might be called one of our trial-pieces, in regard to taste. The reader who feels the vigour of description and the force of pathos underlying Cowper's bare and truly Greek simplicity of phrase, may assure himself se valde profecisse in poetry" (F. T. P.).

"Given an ordinary newspaper paragraph about wreck or battle, turn it into the simplest possible language, do not introduce a single metaphor or figure of speech, indulge in none but the most obvious of all reflections, -as, for example, that when a man is drowned he won't win any more battles and produce as the result a copy of verses which nobody can ever read without instantly knowing them by heart. How Cowper managed to perform such a feat, and why not one poet even in a hundred can perform it, are questions which might lead to some curious critical speculation."-Leslie Stephen, Hours in a Library, Vol. II.

That Cowper did not achieve his success by accident may be inferred from his reply to Johnson's criticism of Prior's verse: "To make verse speak the language of prose without being prosaic, to marshal the words of it in such an order as they might naturally take in falling from the lips of an extemporary speaker, yet without meanness, harmoniously, elegantly, and without seeming to displace a syllable for the sake of the rhyme, is one of the most arduous tasks a poet can undertake." (Southey's Life of Cowper, ch. 12.)

Mr. Storr quotes from Lord Stanhope's History of England, chap. LXVI., as follows:

"Lord Howe had no sooner come back from this successful cruise, than with equal spirit he pressed the re-equipment of his fleet for another expedition in aid of Gibraltar. But the return of our ships to Portsmouth, joyful as at first it seemed, was dashed by a grievous disaster, which, though occurring in a peaceful harbour, equalled the worst calamities of war. The Royal George, of 108 guns, commanded by the gallant Admiral Kempenfeldt, was deemed the first ship in the British navy. had borne a conspicuous part in the celebrated action of Lord Hawke on the coasts of Brittany, and since that time had been repeatedly the flagship of nearly all our great commanders. In order to stop a slight leak previous to a new expedition, it became necessary to lay this vessel slightly on her side. But so little risk was anticipated from the operation, that the Admiral

It

with his officers and men remained on board. Nay more, as is usually the case on coming into port, the ship was crowded with people from the shore, especially women and children; and the number of women only has been computed at three hundred. Such was the state of things at ten o'clock on the morning of the 29th of August, the Admiral writing in his cabin, and most of the people between decks; and it is supposed that the carpenters in their eagerness may have inclined the ship a little more than they were ordered, or than the commanders knew, when a sudden squall of wind arising, threw the ship fatally upon her side, and her gun-ports being open, she almost instantly filled with water and went down. A victualler which lay alongside was swallowed up in the whirlpool which the plunge of so vast a body caused, and several small craft, though at some distance, were in the most imminent danger. About three hundredchiefly sailors were able to save themselves by swimming and the boats; but the persons that perished-men, women, and children-though they could not be accurately reckoned, amounted, it is thought, to almost a thousand. Of these no one was more deeply and more deservedly lamented than Admiral Kempenfeldt himself. He was held, both abroad and at home, to be one of the best naval officers of his time; the son of a Swedish gentleman, who, coming early into the English service, generously followed the ruined fortunes of his master, James the Second, but who, after the death of that monarch, was recalled by Queen Anne, and who has been portrayed by Addison in his excellent sketch of Captain Sentry."

Metre.-Iambic; three accents in each line. The first line is to be read very slowly, the first two monosyllables each taking the place of a dissyllable: Tóll for the brave. So 1. 25: Weigh the véssel úp. Cp. Shakespeare's "Stáy, the King hath thrówn his wárder down."

Cowper himself speaks of the poem as written in Alexandrines, i.e. lines of six iambic feet. It was probably an afterthought, therefore, to divide the long lines into two. The choice of metre was determined by the air for which Cowper composed these words as a song.

4. Fast by, close beside, very near. Cp. Milton, Paradise Lost, II. 725, "Fast by Hell Gate." This use is now obsolete except in poetry, but was once fairly common in prose. It comes naturally from the original sense of the adverb, 'firmly,' fixedly.'

25. weigh, raise, as in the expression 'to weigh anchor.' From A.S. wegan, 'to carry.'

"In 1782 and the following year attempts were made to lift the ship by means of cables passed under her keel. These failing, it was blown up by help of divers in 1839 " (F. Storr).