Late, late in a gloaming, when all was still,
When the fringe was red on the westlin' hill,
The wood was sere, the moon i' the wane,
The reek of the cot hung o'er the plain,
Like a little wee cloud in the world its lane;3
When the ingle 4 lowed 5 with an eery gleam,
Late, late in the gloamin', Kilmeny came
hame!

"Kilmeny, Kilmeny, where have you been?
Lang hae we sought baith holt and dene;
By linn, by ford, and green-wood tree,
Yet you are halesome and fair to see.

7

Where gat you that joup of the lily sheen? That bonny snood3 of the birk9 sae green?

And these roses, the fairest that ever were

seen?

Kilmeny, Kilmeny, where have you been?"

Kilmeny look'd up with a lovely grace,
But nae smile was seen on Kilmeny's face;
As still was her look, and as still was her ee,

I westlin: western. 2reek: smoke. 3 its lane: alone. 4ingle: fire. 5lowed: flamed. 'linn: waterfall. "joup: bodice. snood: hair-ribbon. 9 birk: birch.

As the stillness that lay on the emerald lea,
Or the mist that sleeps on a waveless sea.
For Kilmeny had been she knew not where,
And Kilmeny had seen what she could not
declare.

Kilmeny had been where the cock never crew, Where the rain never fell, and the wind never blew.

But it seem'd as the harp of the sky had

rung,

And the airs of heaven play'd round her tongue,

When she spake of the lovely forms she had

seen,

And a land where sin had never been;
A land of love and a land of light,
Withouten sun, or moon, or night;
The land of vision it would seem,
And still an everlasting dream.

They lifted Kilmeny, they led her away,
And she walk'd in the light of a sunless day;

The sky was a dome of crystal bright,

The fountain of vision, and fountain of light: The emerald fields were of dazzling glow, And the flowers of everlasting blow.

Then deep in the stream her body they laid, That her youth and beauty might never fade; And they smiled on heaven, when they saw her lie

In the stream of life that wander'd by.

And she heard a song, she heard it sung,
She kenn'd not where; but so sweetly it rung,
It fell on the ear like a dream of the morn:
"O blest be the day Kilmeny was born!"

To sing of the sights Kilmeny saw,
So far surpassing nature's law,

The singer's voice would sink away,

And the string of his harp would cease to play. But she saw till the sorrows of man were by, And all was love and harmony;

Till the stars of heaven fell calmly away,

Like the flakes of snow on a winter day.

As the stillness that lay on the emerald lea,
Or the mist that sleeps on a waveless sea.
For Kilmeny had been she knew not where,
And Kilmeny had seen what she could not
declare.

Kilmeny had been where the cock never crew, Where the rain never fell, and the wind never blew.

But it seem'd as the harp of the sky had

rung,

And the airs of heaven play'd round her tongue,

When she spake of the lovely forms she had

seen,

And a land where sin had never been;
A land of love and a land of light,
Withouten sun, or moon, or night;
The land of vision it would seem,
And still an everlasting dream.

They lifted Kilmeny, they led her away,
And she walk'd in the light of a sunless day;

The sky was a dome of crystal bright,

The fountain of vision, and fountain of light: The emerald fields were of dazzling glow, And the flowers of everlasting blow.

Then deep in the stream her body they laid, That her youth and beauty might never fade; And they smiled on heaven, when they saw her lie

In the stream of life that wander'd by.

And she heard a song, she heard it sung,
She kenn'd not where; but so sweetly it rung,
It fell on the ear like a dream of the morn:
"O blest be the day Kilmeny was born!"

To sing of the sights Kilmeny saw,
So far surpassing nature's law,

The singer's voice would sink away,

And the string of his harp would cease to play. But she saw till the sorrows of man were by, And all was love and harmony;

Till the stars of heaven fell calmly away,

Like the flakes of snow on a winter day.