Jeg har kommet over ei webside med masse skotske dikt. Det hele startet med at jeg leste Bharfots beretning om sin Skottlandstur (et herlig, vakkert innlegg med masse fine bilder), og jeg fikk lyst til å poste et skotsk dikt her i bloggen min. Så da var det bare å ta Google fatt, og jeg fant denne sida: A Selection of Scottish Poetry.
Og hva passer vel bedre enn et dikt om slott når man snakker om Skottland? Her er ett av Alexander Anderson:
A Castle Old And Grey
I never see a castle
That is gaunt and grey and grim,
But my thoughts at once go backward
To the past so misty and dim.
To the time when tower and turret,
Kept watch far over the vale;
And along the sounding draw-bridge
Rode knights in their suits of mail.
I see the sunshine glancing
On helmet, pennon, and spear;
And hear from the depth of the forest,
A bugle calling clear.
I fill the hall with visions
Of ladies rich in their bloom;
And stately knights in armour,
And waving with feather and plume.
If I climb the broken stairway,
Where the stone is smooth and fine,
I hear a rustle and whisper,
And footsteps in front of mine.
Whisper of youth and maiden,
As they met in the long ago;
His deep and strong and manly,
Hers tender and sweet and low.
But maiden and youth have vanished,
Away from the scene and the light;
Gone, too, the high-born lady,
And the plumed and armoured knight.
Only the grey old castle,
Of crumbling stone and lime,
Still stands to speak of the ages,
And the iron footsteps of Time.
Neidpath Castle
Nå fikk jeg enda mer lyst til å se et skotsk slott 🙂 Det nærmeste jeg kom var Glasgow School of Art, designet av Mackintosh, angivelig med inspirasjon fra gamle skotske slott. Må jo bare få med meg en original nesten gang.
Ja, det anbefales! Finnes drøssevis av slott i Sør-Skottland. 🙂