The Lady of the Lake

Circle of CALLCOTT Augustus Wall, 1779-1844 (United Kingdom)

  I have begun to read The Lady of the Lake by Sir Walter Scott today. I have heard of it and read of it in books but had never come across it until I found it among many of his other works on a website called the literature network which is a treasure trove of classic literature all there free for anyone to enjoy. I'm not really a fan of reading of a screen, I'd much prefer a book in my hands. But I did find it useful having an online dictionary and Google earth open while I was reading as well as Wikipedia to look up all the many saints mentioned. I found Lake Katrine, a real lake in Scotland where the lady lived. I do hope to visit that land of my ancestors one day.

  There are some beautiful passages in the poem, here are some from what I have read so far:

'Faint, and more faint, its failing din

Returned from cavern, cliff, and linn,

And silence settled, wide and still,

 On the lone wood and mighty hill.'

'So wondrous wild, the whole might seem
The scenery of a fairy dream.'

 

'Onward, amid the copse 'gan peep
A narrow inlet, still and deep,
Affording scarce such breadth of brim
As served the wild duck's brood to swim.
Lost for a space, through thickets veering,
But broader when again appearing,
Tall rocks and tufted knolls their face
Could on the dark-blue mirror trace;
And farther as the Hunter strayed,
Still broader sweep its channels made.
The shaggy mounds no longer stood,
Emerging from entangled wood,
But, wave-encircled, seemed to float,
Like castle girdled with its moat;
Yet broader floods extending still
Divide them from their parent hill,
Till each, retiring, claims to be
An islet in an inland sea.'

'What though no rule of courtly grace
To measured mood had trained her pace,--
A foot more light, a step more true,
Ne'er from the heath-flower dashed the dew;'

It's all full of such beautiful words...

   I have only just begun the very long poem and am enjoying it more than I thought I would. Have any of my readers read it before?  It reminds me of Tennysons The Lady of Shallot a favorite poem of mine.