Famous Brae Poems by Famous Poets

These are examples of famous Brae poems written by some of the greatest and most-well-known modern and classical poets. PoetrySoup is a great educational poetry resource of famous brae poems. These examples illustrate what a famous brae poem looks like and its form, scheme, or style (where appropriate).

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334. Song—Fragment—Damon and Sylvia

by Robert Burns
 YON wandering rill that marks the hill,
 And glances o’er the brae, Sir,
Slides by a bower, where mony a flower
 Sheds fragrance on the day, Sir;
There Damon lay, with Sylvia gay,
 To love they thought no crime, Sir,
The wild birds sang, the echoes rang,
 While Damon’s heart beat time, Sir....Read more of this...

Scotland 1941

by Edwin Muir
 We were a tribe, a family, a people.
Wallace and Bruce guard now a painted field,
And all may read the folio of our fable,
Peruse the sword, the sceptre and the shield.
A simple sky roofed in that rustic day,
The busy corn-fields and the haunted holms,
The green road winding up the ferny brae.
But Knox and Melville clapped their preaching palms
And bundled all...Read more of this...

158. Song—The Bonie Moor-hen

by Robert Burns
 THE HEATHER was blooming, the meadows were mawn,
Our lads gaed a-hunting ae day at the dawn,
O’er moors and o’er mosses and mony a glen,
At length they discover’d a bonie moor-hen.


Chorus.—I rede you, beware at the hunting, young men,
I rede you, beware at the hunting, young men;
Take some on the wing, and some as they spring,
But cannily steal on a...Read more of this...

313. Lament of Mary Queen of Scots

by Robert Burns
 NOW Nature hangs her mantle green
 On every blooming tree,
And spreads her sheets o’ daisies white
 Out o’er the grassy lea;
Now Phoebus cheers the crystal streams,
 And glads the azure skies;
But nought can glad the weary wight
 That fast in durance lies.


Now laverocks wake the merry morn
 Aloft on dewy wing;
The merle, in his noontide bow’r,
 Makes woodland echoes...Read more of this...

MacGregors Gathering

by Sir Walter Scott
 The moon's on the lake, and the mist's on the brae,
And the Clan has a name that is nameless by day;
Then gather, gather, gather, Grigalach!
Gather, gather, gather, &c.

Our signal for fight, that from monarchs we drew,
Must be heard but by night in our vengeful haloo!
Then haloo, Grigalach! haloo, Grigalach!
Haloo, haloo, haloo, Grigalach, &c.

Glen Orchy's proud mountains, Coalchuirn and her...Read more of this...

15. Winter: A Dirge

by Robert Burns
 THE WINTRY west extends his blast,
 And hail and rain does blaw;
Or the stormy north sends driving forth
 The blinding sleet and snaw:
While, tumbling brown, the burn comes down,
 And roars frae bank to brae;
And bird and beast in covert rest,
 And pass the heartless day.


“The sweeping blast, the sky o’ercast,”
 The joyless winter day
Let others fear, to me...Read more of this...

86. The Auld Farmer's New-Year-Morning Salutation to his Auld Mare Maggie

by Robert Burns
 A GUID New-year I wish thee, Maggie!
Hae, there’s a ripp to thy auld baggie:
Tho’ thou’s howe-backit now, an’ knaggie,
 I’ve seen the day
Thou could hae gaen like ony staggie,
 Out-owre the lay.


Tho’ now thou’s dowie, stiff, an’ crazy,
An’ thy auld hide as white’s a daisie,
I’ve seen thee dappl’t, sleek an’ glaizie,
 A bonie gray:
He should been tight that daur’t...Read more of this...

The Incarnate One

by Edwin Muir
 The windless northern surge, the sea-gull's scream,
And Calvin's kirk crowning the barren brae.
I think of Giotto the Tuscan shepherd's dream,
Christ, man and creature in their inner day.
How could our race betray
The Image, and the Incarnate One unmake
Who chose this form and fashion for our sake? 

The Word made flesh here is made word again
A word made word in flourish...Read more of this...

To Mesdames Zassetsky And Garschine

by Robert Louis Stevenson
 THE wind may blaw the lee-gang way
And aye the lift be mirk an' gray,
An deep the moss and steigh the brae
Where a' maun gang -
There's still an hoor in ilka day
For luve and sang.

And canty hearts are strangely steeled.
By some dikeside they'll find a bield,
Some couthy neuk by muir or field
They're sure to hit,
Where, frae the blatherin' wind concealed,
They'll...Read more of this...

The Bour-Tree Den

by Robert Louis Stevenson
 CLINKUM-CLANK in the rain they ride,
Down by the braes and the grey sea-side;
Clinkum-clank by stane and cairn,
Weary fa' their horse-shoe-airn!

Loud on the causey, saft on the sand,
Round they rade by the tail of the land;
Round and up by the Bour-Tree Den,
Weary fa' the red-coat men!

Aft hae I gane where they hae rade
And straigled in the gowden brooms -
Aft hae...Read more of this...

139. Lines on Meeting with Lord Daer

by Robert Burns
 THIS 1 wot ye all whom it concerns,
I, Rhymer Robin, alias Burns,
 October twenty-third,
A ne’er-to-be-forgotten day,
Sae far I sprackl’d up the brae,
 I dinner’d wi’ a Lord.


I’ve been at drucken writers’ feasts,
Nay, been *****-fou ’mang godly priests—
 Wi’ rev’rence be it spoken!—
I’ve even join’d the honour’d jorum,
When mighty Squireships of the quorum,
 Their hydra drouth did sloken.


But wi’ a...Read more of this...

426. Song—By Allan Stream

by Robert Burns
 BY Allan stream I chanc’d to rove,
 While Phoebus sank beyond Benledi;
The winds are whispering thro’ the grove,
 The yellow corn was waving ready:
I listen’d to a lover’s sang,
 An’ thought on youthfu’ pleasures mony;
And aye the wild-wood echoes rang—
 “O, dearly do I love thee, Annie!


“O, happy be the woodbine bower,
 Nae nightly bogle make it eerie;
Nor ever...Read more of this...

Oban

by William Topaz McGonagall
 Oh! beautiful Oban with your lovely bay,
Your surroundings are magnificent on a fine summer-day;
There the lover of the picturesque can behold,
As the sun goes down, the scenery glittering like gold. 

And on a calm evening, behind the village let him climb the hill,
And as he watches the sun go down, with delight his heart will fill
As he beholds the...Read more of this...

A Day Dream

by Emily Brontë
 On a sunny brae, alone I lay
One summer afternoon;
It was the marriage-time of May
With her young lover, June. 

From her mother's heart, seemed loath to part
That queen of bridal charms,
But her father smiled on the fairest child
He ever held in his arms. 

The trees did wave their plumy crests,
The glad birds caroled clear;
And I, of all the wedding guests,
Was...Read more of this...

142. Epistle to Major Logan

by Robert Burns
 HAIL, thairm-inspirin’, rattlin’ Willie!
Tho’ fortune’s road be rough an’ hilly
To every fiddling, rhyming billie,
 We never heed,
But take it like the unback’d filly,
 Proud o’ her speed.


When, idly goavin’, whiles we saunter,
Yirr! fancy barks, awa we canter,
Up hill, down brae, till some mischanter,
 Some black bog-hole,
Arrests us; then the scathe an’ banter
 We’re forced to thole.


Hale be your heart!...Read more of this...

I Now O Friend Whom Noiselessly The Snows

by Robert Louis Stevenson
 I NOW, O friend, whom noiselessly the snows
Settle around, and whose small chamber grows
Dusk as the sloping window takes its load:

* * * * *

The kindly hill, as to complete our hap,
Has ta'en us in the shelter of her lap;
Well sheltered in our slender grove of trees
And ring of walls, we sit between her knees;
A disused quarry, paved with...Read more of this...

388. Extempore on some commemorations of Thomson

by Robert Burns
 DOST thou not rise, indignant shade,
 And smile wi’ spurning scorn,
When they wha wad hae starved thy life,
 Thy senseless turf adorn?


Helpless, alane, thou clamb the brae,
 Wi’ meikle honest toil,
And claught th’ unfading garland there—
 Thy sair-worn, rightful spoil.


And wear it thou! and call aloud
 This axiom undoubted—
Would thou hae Nobles’ patronage?
 First learn to live without it!


To...Read more of this...

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