Analysis of The Execution Of Montrose
William Edmondstoune Aytoun 1813 (Edinburgh) – 1865 (Lhanbryde)
COME hither, Evan Cameron!
Come, stand beside my knee:
I hear the river roaring down
Towards the wintry sea.
There ’s shouting on the mountain-side,
There ’s war within the blast;
Old faces look upon me,
Old forms go trooping past:
I hear the pibroch wailing
Amidst the din of fight,
And my dim spirit wakes again
Upon the verge of night.
’T was I that led the Highland host
Through wild Lochaber’s snows,
What time the plaided clans came down
To battle with Montrose.
I ’ve told thee how the Southrons fell
Beneath the broad claymore,
And how we smote the Campbell clan
By Inverlochy’s shore.
I ’ve told thee how we swept Dundee,
And tam’d the Lindsays’ pride;
But never have I told thee yet
How the great Marquis died.
A traitor sold him to his foes;
O deed of deathless shame!
I charge thee, boy, if e’er thou meet
With one of Assynt’s name—
Be it upon the mountain’s side,
Or yet within the glen,
Stand he in martial gear alone,
Or back’d by armed men—
Face him, as thou wouldst face the man
Who wrong’d thy sire’s renown;
Remember of what blood thou art,
And strike the caitiff down!
They brought him to the Watergate,
Hard bound with hempen span,
As though they held a lion there,
And not a fenceless man.
They set him high upon a cart,
The hangman rode below,
They drew his hands behind his back
And bar’d his noble brow.
Then, as a hound is slipp’d from leash,
They cheer’d the common throng,
And blew the note with yell and shout
And bade him pass along.
It would have made a brave man’s heart
Grow sad and sick that day,
To watch the keen malignant eyes
Bent down on that array.
There stood the Whig west-country lords,
In balcony and bow;
There sat their gaunt and wither’d dames,
And their daughters all a-row.
And every open window
Was full as full might be
With black-rob’d Covenanting carles,
That goodly sport to see!
But when he came, though pale and wan,
He look’d so great and high,
So noble was his manly front,
So calm his steadfast eye,
The rabble rout forbore to shout,
And each man held his breath,
For well they knew the hero’s soul
Was face to face with death.
And then a mournful shudder
Through all the people crept,
And some that came to scoff at him
Now turn’d aside and wept.
But onwards—always onwards,
In silence and in gloom,
The dreary pageant labor’d,
Till it reach’d the house of doom.
Then first a woman’s voice was heard
In jeer and laughter loud,
And an angry cry and a hiss arose
From the heart of the tossing crowd:
Then as the Graeme look’d upwards,
He saw the ugly smile
Of him who sold his king for gold,
The master-fiend Argyle!
The Marquis gaz’d a moment,
And nothing did he say,
But the cheek of Argyle grew ghastly pale
And he turn’d his eyes away.
The painted harlot by his side,
She shook through every limb,
For a roar like thunder swept the street,
And hands were clench’d at him;
And a Saxon soldier cried aloud,
“Back, coward, from thy place!
For seven long years thou hast not dar’d
To look him in the face.”
Had I been there with sword in hand,
And fifty Camerons by,
That day through high Dunedin’s streets
Had peal’d the slogan-cry.
Not all their troops of trampling horse,
Nor might of mailed men,
Not all the rebels in the south
Had borne us backwards then!
Once more his foot on Highland heath
Had trod as free as air,
Or I, and all who bore my name,
Been laid around him there!
It might not be. They placed him next
Within the solemn hall,
Where once the Scottish kings were thron’d
Amidst their nobles all.
But there was dust of vulgar feet
On that polluted floor,
And perju’d traitors fill’d the place
Where good men sate before.
With savage glee came Warristoun
To read the murderous doom;
And then uprose the great Montrose
In the middle of the room.
“Now, by my faith as belted knight,
And by the name I bear,
And by the bright Saint Andrew’s cross
That waves above us there,
Yea, by a greater, mightier oath—
And oh, that such should be!
By that dark stream of royal blood
That lies ’twixt you and me,
I have not sought in battle-field
Scheme | ABCBDEBEXFGF XHCHXIJIBDXD HKLKDGXGJCMC XJNJMOXPXQRQ MSXSXPXOOBXB XTUTRVXVXWXW YZDZX1 H1 Y2 X2 USXSDXLX1 3 D3 XTXTXGXGXNKN X4 D4 LI3 IAZHZ FNXNXBXBX |
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Poetic Form | |
Metre | 11010100 110111 11010101 010101 111010101 1110101 1101011 111101 110110 010111 01110101 010111 111110101 1111 1101111 11011 11111011 01011 01110101 111 111111101 01011 11011111 10111 01011111 11111 11111111 11111 11010101 110101 11010101 11111 11111101 111101 01011111 01011 1111010 111101 11110101 010101 11110101 010101 11110111 011101 11011111 110101 01011101 011101 11110111 110111 11010101 111101 11011101 010001 1111011 0110101 01001010 111111 11111 110111 11111101 111101 11011101 11111 0101111 011111 11110101 111111 0101010 110101 01111111 110101 110110 010001 010101 1110111 1101111 010101 0110100101 10110101 1101110 110101 11111111 01011 011010 010111 101111101 0111101 01010111 1111001 101110101 010111 001010101 110111 110111111 111001 11111101 0101001 111111 110101 11111101 11111 11010001 111101 11111101 111111 11011111 110111 11111111 010101 11010101 011101 11111101 110101 0110101 111101 110111 1101001 011011 0010101 11111101 010111 0101111 110111 110101001 011111 11111101 111101 11110101 |
Closest metre | Iambic tetrameter |
Characters | 4,264 |
Words | 752 |
Sentences | 30 |
Stanzas | 11 |
Stanza Lengths | 12, 12, 12, 12, 12, 12, 12, 12, 12, 12, 9 |
Lines Amount | 129 |
Letters per line (avg) | 24 |
Words per line (avg) | 6 |
Letters per stanza (avg) | 281 |
Words per stanza (avg) | 68 |
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Submitted on May 13, 2011
Modified on March 05, 2023
- 3:45 min read
- 69 Views
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"The Execution Of Montrose" Poetry.com. STANDS4 LLC, 2024. Web. 30 Apr. 2024. <https://www.poetry.com/poem-analysis/40414/the-execution-of-montrose>.
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