In that green wene Kilmeny lay,
Her bosom happ’d¹⁶ wi’ flowerets gay;
But the air was soft and the silence deep,
And bonnie Kilmeny fell sound asleep.
She kenn’d nae mair, nor open’d her e’e,
Till waked by the hymns of a far countrye.

She ’waken’d on a couch of the silk sae slim,
All striped wi’ the bars of the rainbow’s rim;
And lovely beings round were rife,
Who erst had travell’d mortal life;
And aye they smiled and ’gan to speer,¹⁷
‘What spirit has brought this mortal here?’—

‘Lang have I journey’d, the world wide,’
A meek and reverend fere replied;
‘Baith night and day I have watch’d the fair,
Eident¹⁸ a thousand years and mair.

Yes, I have watch’d o’er ilk degree,
Wherever blooms femenitye;
But sinless virgin, free¹⁹ of stain
In mind and body, fand I nane.
Never, since the banquet of time,
Found I a virgin in her prime,
Till late this bonnie maiden I saw
As spotless as the morning snaw:
Full twenty years she has lived as free
As the spirits that sojourn in this countrye:
I have brought her away frae the snares of men,
That sin or death she never may ken.’—

They clasp’d her waist and her hands sae fair,
They kiss’d her cheek and they kemed²⁰ her hair,
And round came many a blooming fere,
Saying, ‘Bonnie Kilmeny, ye’re welcome here!
Women are freed of the littand scorn:
O blest be the day Kilmeny was born!
Now shall the land of the spirits see,
Now shall it ken what a woman may be!
Many a lang year, in sorrow and pain,
Many a lang year through the world we’ve gane,
Commission’d to watch fair womankind,
For it’s they who nurice the immortal mind.
We have watch’d their steps as the dawning shone,
And deep in the green-wood walks alone;
By lily bower and silken bed,
The viewless tears have o’er them shed;
Have soothed their ardent minds to sleep,
Or left the couch of love to weep.

We have seen! we have seen! but the time must come,
And the angels will weep at the day of doom!

‘O would the fairest of mortal kind
Aye keep the holy truths in mind,
That kindred spirits their motions see,
Who watch their ways with anxious e’e,
And grieve for the guilt of humanitye!
O, sweet to Heaven the maiden’s prayer,
And the sigh that heaves a bosom sae fair!
And dear to Heaven the words of truth,
And the praise of virtue frae beauty’s mouth!
And dear to the viewless forms of air,
The minds that kyth²¹ as the body fair!

‘O bonnie Kilmeny! free frae stain,
If ever you seek the world again,
That world of sin, of sorrow and fear,
O tell of the joys that are waiting here;
And tell of the signs you shall shortly see;
Of the times that are now, and the times that shall be.’—
They lifted Kilmeny, they led her away,
And she walk’d in the light of a sunless day;
The sky was a dome of crystal bright,
The fountain of vision, and fountain of light:
The emerald fields were of dazzling glow,
And the flowers of everlasting blow.
Then deep in the stream her body they laid,
That her youth and beauty never might fade;
And they smiled on heaven, when they saw her lie
In the stream of life that wander’d bye.

And she heard a song, she heard it sung,
She kenn’d not where; but sae sweetly it rung,
It fell on the ear like a dream of the morn:
‘O, blest be the day Kilmeny was born!
Now shall the land of the spirits see,
Now shall it ken what a woman may be!
The sun that shines on the world sae bright,
A borrow’d gleid²² frae the fountain of light;
And the moon that sleeks the sky sae dun,
Like a gouden bow, or a beamless sun,
Shall wear away, and be seen nae mair,
And the angels shall miss them travelling the air.
But lang, lang after baith night and day,
When the sun and the world have elyed²³ away;
When the sinner has gane to his waesome doom,
Kilmeny shall smile in eternal bloom!’—

They bore her away, she wist not how,
For she felt not arm nor rest below;
But so swift they wain’d her through the light,
’Twas like the motion of sound or sight;
They seem’d to split the gales of air,
And yet nor gale nor breeze was there.
Unnumber’d groves below them grew,
They came, they pass’d, and backward flew,
Like floods of blossoms gliding on,
In moment seen, in moment gone.
O, never vales