Kilmeny looked up with a lovely grace,
But nae smile was seen on Kilmeny's face;
As still was her look, as still was her ee,
As the stillness which lay on the emerant lea,
Or the mist that sleeps on a waveless sea.
For Kilmeny had been she knew not where,
And Kilmeny had seen what she could not declare;
Kilmeny had been where the cock never crew,
Where the rain never fell, and the wind never blew,
But it seemed as the harp of the sky had rung
And the airs of heaven played round her tongue
When she spake of the lovely forms she had seen
And a land where sin had never been
A land of love, and a land of light,
Withouten sun, or moon, or night...
(extract from James Hogg 'the Ettrick Shepherd', 'Kilmeny', part of The Queen's Wake)
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album, priced at $8.00 for physical acquisition.
I discovered Hogg's 'Kilmeny' in its own right ten years ago thanks to Rosie Kerr, a
New
Zealand lass who makes intricate little pewter Scottish souvenirs with her husband
Nick,
in Nenthorn. It's fairly long poem and this is not the only memorable passage. Parts
of it
are worthy of Milton or Coleridge. Parts of it are not, but the whole is compelling.
The
Queen's Wake, an attempt by Hogg to rival Scott, also contains 'The Witch of Fife'
which
is incredible for its length.
Someone should do something one day with Kilmeny; it's got many facets to it from
sarcasm
(being based on the premise that this lass turns out to be the first and only genuinely
pure woman ever to have lived on earth!) to gothic imagery, transcendental visions,
patriotic fervour, digs at religion. It's highly visual and would make a remarkable
animation with voiceover and inspiration for real music, not my sort of stuff. Has it
ever
been done?
Any enlightenment on the location for Kilmeny, and why the unusual first name for a
girl;
who Duneira was (her father?); and precisely what the 'rosy monk of the isle'
signifies?
David Kilpatrick
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