Before my breath, like blazing flax,
Man and his marvels pass away ! And changing empires wane and wax,
Are founded, flourish, and decay.
Redeem mine hours the space is brief While in my glass the sand-grains shiver,
And measureless thy joy or grief,
When TIME and thou shalt part for ever ! '
��LX THE RED HARLAW
THE herring loves the merry moonlight,
The mackerel loves the wind, But the oyster loves the dredging sang,
For they come of a gentle kind.
Now haud your tongue, baith wife and carle,
And listen, great and sma', And I will sing of Glenallan's Earl
That fought on the red Harlaw.
The cronach's cried on Bennachie,
And doim the Don and a', And hieland and lawland may mournfu 1 be
For the sair field of Harlaw.
They saddled a hundred milk-white steeds, They hae bridled a hundred black,
With a chafron of steel on each horse's head And a good knight upon his back.
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