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Verses on Castle Gordon

by Robert Burns, 1787

Streams that glide in orient plains,
Never bound by Winter's chains;
  Glowing here on golden sands,
There immix'd with foulest stains
  From Tyranny's empurpled hands;
These, their richly gleaming waves,
I leave to tyrants and their slaves;
Give me the stream that sweetly laves
    The banks by Castle Gordon.

Spicy forests, ever gray,
Shading from the burning ray
  Hapless wretches sold to toil;
Or the ruthless native's way,
  Bent on slaughter, blood, and spoil:
Woods that ever verdant wave,
I leave the tyrant and the slave;
Give me the groves that lofty brave
    The storms by Castle Gordon.

Wildly here, without control,
Nature reigns and rules the whole;
  In that sober pensive mood,
Dearest to the feeling soul,
  She plants the forest, pours the flood:
Life's poor day I'll musing rave
And find at night a sheltering cave,
Where waters flow and wild woods wave,
    By bonie Castle Gordon.

Published in Poems and Songs of Robert Burns
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