BRUCE AND THE SPIDER
by: Bernard Barton (1784-1849)
- OR Scotland's and for freedom's right
- The Bruce his part has played;--
- In five successive fields of fight
- Been conquered and dismayed:
- Once more against the English host
- His band he led, and once more lost
- The meed for which he fought;
- And now from battle, faint and worn,
- The homeless fugitive, forlorn,
- A hut's lone shelter sought.
- And cheerless was that resting-place
- For him who claimed a throne;--
- His canopy, devoid of grace,
- The rude, rough beams alone;
- The heather couch his only bed--
- Yet well I ween had slumber fled
- From couch of eider down!
- Through darksome night till dawn of day,
- Absorbed in wakeful thought he lay
- Of Scotland and her crown.
- The sun rose brightly, and its gleam
- Fell on that hapless bed,
- And tinged with light each shapeless beam
- Which roofed the lowly shed;
- When, looking up with wistful eye,
- The Bruce beheld a spider try
- His filmy thread to fling
- From beam to beam of that rude cot--
- And well the insect's toilsome lot
- Taught Scotland's future king.
- Six times the gossamery thread
- The wary spider threw;--
- In vain the filmy line was sped,
- For powerless or untrue
- Each aim appeared, and back recoiled
- The patient insect, six times foiled,
- And yet unconquered still;
- And soon the Bruce, with eager eye,
- Saw him prepare once more to try
- His courage, strength, and skill.
- One effort more, his seventh and last!--
- The hero hailed the sign!--
- And on the wished-for beam hung fast
- That slender silken line!
- Slight as it was, his spirit caught
- The more than omen; for his thought
- The lesson well could trace,
- Which even "he who runs may read,"
- That Perseverance gains its meed,
- And Patience wins the race.
- The Bruce his part has played;--
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