Sonnet Written at Woodhouselee

John Leyden

In 1802

Sweet Riv'let! as, in pensive mood reclin'd,
Thy lone voice talking to the night I hear,
Now swelling loud and louder on the ear,
Now sinking in the pauses of the wind,
A stilly sadness overspreads my mind,
To think how oft the whirling gale shall strew
O'er thy bright stream the leaves of sallow hue,
Ere next this classic haunt my wanderings find. —
That lulling harmony resounds again,
That soothes the slumbering leaves on every tree,
And seems to say — "Wilt thou remember me?"
The stream that listen'd oft to Ramsay's strain.
Though Ramsay's pastoral reed be heard no more,
Yet taste and fancy long shall linger on thy shore.

Woodhouselee Castle was built in the 16th century above the River North Esk. It was burned to the ground in the 17th.