Quotes from work
The Lay of the Last Minstrel

Walter Scott

"The Lay of the Last Minstrel" is a long narrative poem by Walter Scott.

“Love rules the court, the camp, the grove, and men below, and the saints above, for love is heaven, and heaven is love.”

Walter Scott The Lay of the Last Minstrel

Canto III, stanza 2.
The Lay of the Last Minstrel (1805)
Context: In peace, Love tunes the shepherd's reed;
In war, he mounts the warrior's steed;
In halls, in gay attire is seen;
In hamlets, dances on the green.
Love rules the court, the camp, the grove,
And men below, and saints above;
For love is heaven, and heaven is love.

“O fading honours of the dead!
O high ambition, lowly laid!”

Walter Scott The Lay of the Last Minstrel

Canto II, stanza 10.
The Lay of the Last Minstrel (1805)

“I cannot tell how the truth may be;
I say the tale as 'twas said to me.”

Walter Scott The Lay of the Last Minstrel

Canto II, stanza 22.
The Lay of the Last Minstrel (1805)

“The way was long, the wind was cold,
The Minstrel was infirm and old;
His withered cheek, and tresses gray,
Seemed to have known a better day.”

Walter Scott The Lay of the Last Minstrel

Introduction
The Lay of the Last Minstrel (1805)

“Her blue eyes sought the west afar,
For lovers love the western star.”

Walter Scott The Lay of the Last Minstrel

Canto III, stanza 24.
The Lay of the Last Minstrel (1805)

“I was not always a man of woe.”

Walter Scott The Lay of the Last Minstrel

Canto II, stanza 12.
The Lay of the Last Minstrel (1805)

“Steady of heart, and stout of hand.”

Walter Scott The Lay of the Last Minstrel

Canto I, stanza 21.
The Lay of the Last Minstrel (1805)

“Along thy wild and willow'd shore.”

Walter Scott The Lay of the Last Minstrel

Canto IV, stanza 1.
The Lay of the Last Minstrel (1805)

“If thou would'st view fair Melrose aright,
Go visit it by the pale moonlight.”

Walter Scott The Lay of the Last Minstrel

Canto II, stanza 1.
The Lay of the Last Minstrel (1805)

“Such is the custom of Branksome Hall.”

Walter Scott The Lay of the Last Minstrel

Canto I, stanza 7.
The Lay of the Last Minstrel (1805)

“For ne'er
Was flattery lost on poet's ear:
A simple race! they waste their toil
For the vain tribute of a smile.”

Walter Scott The Lay of the Last Minstrel

Canto IV, conclusion
The Lay of the Last Minstrel (1805)

“Breathes there the man, with soul so dead,
Who never to himself hath said,
This is my own, my native land!
Whose heart hath ne'er within him burn'd,
As home his footsteps he hath turn'd,
From wandering on a foreign strand!
If such there breathe, go, mark him well;
For him no Minstrel raptures swell;
High though his titles, proud his name,
Boundless his wealth as wish can claim;
Despite those titles, power, and pelf,
The wretch, concentred all in self,
Living, shall forfeit fair renown,
And, doubly dying, shall go down
To the vile dust, from whence he sprung,
Unwept, unhonor'd, and unsung.”

Walter Scott The Lay of the Last Minstrel

Canto VI, stanza 1.
The Lay of the Last Minstrel (1805)

“O Caledonia! stern and wild,
Meet nurse for a poetic child!
Land of brown heath and shaggy wood,
Land of the mountain and the flood!”

Walter Scott The Lay of the Last Minstrel

Canto VI, stanza 2.
The Lay of the Last Minstrel (1805)

“That day of wrath, that dreadful day,
When heaven and earth shall pass away,
What power shall be the sinner's stay?
How shall he meet that dreadful day?”

Walter Scott The Lay of the Last Minstrel

Canto VI, stanza 31.
The Lay of the Last Minstrel (1805)

“Call it not vain;—they do not err,
Who say, that when the Poet dies,
Mute Nature mourns her worshipper,
And celebrates his obsequies.”

Walter Scott The Lay of the Last Minstrel

Canto V, stanza 1.
The Lay of the Last Minstrel (1805)

“True love's the gift which God has given
To man alone beneath the heaven”

Walter Scott The Lay of the Last Minstrel

Canto V, stanza 13.
The Lay of the Last Minstrel (1805)
Context: True love's the gift which God has given
To man alone beneath the heaven:
It is not fantasy's hot fire,
Whose wishes, soon as granted, fly;
It liveth not in fierce desire,
With dead desire it doth not die;
It is the secret sympathy,
The silver link, the silken tie,
Which heart to heart, and mind to mind
In body and in soul can bind.