Volume Vi Part 7 (1/2)
WILLIAM BENNET.
William Bennet was born on the 29th September, 1802, in the parish of Glencairn, and county of Dumfries. He first wrote verses while apprenticed to a mechanic in a neighbouring parish. In his nineteenth year he published a volume of poems, which excited some attention, and led to his connexion with the newspaper press. He became a regular contributor to the _Dumfries Courier_, edited by the ingenious John M'Diarmid; and in 1825 and the following year conducted the _Dumfries Magazine_, in which appeared many interesting articles from his pen. In December 1826, he became editor of the _Glasgow Free Press_, which supported the liberal cause during the whole of the Reform Bill struggle. Along with Sir Daniel Sandford, he afterwards withdrew from the Whig party, and established the _Glasgow Const.i.tutional_, the editors.h.i.+p of which he resigned in 1836. In 1832-3, he published a periodical, ent.i.tled, ”Bennet's Glasgow Magazine.” Continuing to write verses, he afterwards published a poetical volume, with the t.i.tle, ”Songs of Solitude.” His other separate works are, ”Pictures of Scottish Scenes and Character,” in three volumes; ”Sketches of the Isle of Man;”
and ”The Chief of Glen-Orchay,” a poem in five cantos, ill.u.s.trative of Highland manners and mythology in the middle ages.
Mr Bennet, subsequent to leaving Glasgow, resided successively in Ireland, and London. He afterwards lived several years in Galloway, and has latterly fixed his abode at Greenmount, near Burntisland. He is understood to be engaged in a new translation of the Scriptures.
BLEST BE THE HOUR OF NIGHT.
Blest be the hour of night, When, his toils over, The swain, with a heart so light, Meets with his lover!
Sweet the moon gilds their path, Arm in arm straying; Clouds never rise in wrath, Chiding their staying.
Gently they whisper low: Unseen beside them, Good angels watch, that no Ill may betide them.
Silence is everywhere, Save when the sighing Is heard, of the breeze's fall, Fitfully dying.
How the maid's bosom glows, While her swain 's telling The love, that 's been long, she knows, In his heart swelling!
How, when his arms are thrown Tenderly round her, Fears she, in words to own What he hath found her!
When the first peep of dawn Warns them of parting, And from each dewy lawn Blythe birds are starting, Fondly she hears her swain Vow, though they sever, Soon they shall meet again, Mated for ever.
THE ROSE OF BEAUTY.
Amang the breezy heights and howes Where winds the Milk[6] sae clearly, A Rose o' beauty sweetly grows, A Rose I lo'e most dearly.
Wi' spring's saft rain and simmer's sun How blooms my Rose divinely!
And lang ere blaws the winter wun', This breast shall nurse it kin'ly.
May heaven's dew aye freshly weet My Rose at ilka gloamin', And oh, may nae unhallow'd feet Be near it ever roamin'!
I soon shall buy a snug wee cot, And hae my Rose brought thither; And then, in that lowne sunny spot, We'll bloom and fade thegither.
FOOTNOTES:
[6] A beautiful sylvan stream, falling from the uplands into the Annan, between Ecclefechan and Lockerbie.
I 'LL THINK ON THEE, LOVE.