ON THE DEATH OF MARSHAL KEITH. KEITH then is fallen! What numbers can there flow, What strains adequate to so great a woe! 5 They mourn his fate, who felt his sword before; What must they feel for whom the warrior stormed, Whose fields he fought, whose every counsel formed! 10 Brave Prussia's sons depend the mournful head, Sad round the corse, a stately ring they stand, Their arms reflecting terror o'er the land; 15 And mourn the chief they shall obey no more; A pearly drop hangs in each warrior's eye, This piece appears to have been wrote before the account that M. Keith's funeral obsequies were solemnized by the Austrians had reached Great Fred'ric comes to join the mighty woe; Eternal laurels bind his awful brow; Majestic in his arms he stands, and cries, Is Keith no more? and as he speaks, he sighs; the foe: 20 He 25 30 But Caledonia o'er the rest appears, 35 Turks stood aghast, as, o'er the fields of war, He ruled the storm, and urged the martial car. They asked their chiefs, what state the hero raised; 45 But chief, as relics of a dying race, The Keiths command, in woe, the foremost place; the author; a circumstance which he would probably have converted to very good purpose. BLACKLOCK's Collection, vol. i. p. 229. Edin. 1760. This note is in Macpherson's enigmatical style, and the poem, which first appeared with his initials, (J. M'P. dated Ruthven, October 31, 1758,) in the Scots and Edinburgh Magazines, was evidently inserted by himself in BLACKLOCK'S Collection. A name for ages through the world revered, 50 Now falling, dying, lost to all but fame, And only living in the hero's name. See! the proud halls they once possessed, decayed, The spiral tow'rs depend the lofty head; Wild ivy creeps along the mould'ring walls, 55 And with each gust of wind a fragment falls; On Mem'ry's tablet mankind soon decay, And mark with them the way their chiefs should go; Keith lived in glory, and in glory fell. 60 ON THE DEATH OF A YOUNG LADY'. LAMENTED shade! thy fate demands a tear, The genuine drops that flow from friendship's eyes! For this did beauty's fairest hand arise 10 15 I First published with Macpherson's initials (J. M'P.), in the Scots Magazine for May 1749, and reprinted with his name in BLACKLOCK'S Collection, V. II. p. 176. Edin. 1762. |