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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