Lays Of The Scottish Cavaliers: And Other Poems

by William Edmondstoune Aytoun

Lays Of The Scottish And Other Poems by William Edmondstoune Aytoun is a nineteenth-century collection that fuses Scottish history with lyrical balladry. Composed of two parts, Lays of the Scottish Cavaliers and Miscellaneous Poems, it gathers dramatic narratives, moral reflections, and martial imagery. The sequence opens with Edinburgh After Flodden, The Execution of Montrose, The Heart of the Bruce, The Burial March of Dundee, The Widow of Glencoe, The Island of the Scots, and Charles Edward At Versailles, alongside The Old Scottish Cavalier; these poems commemorate Scotland’s wars, loyalties, and tragedies from Flodden (1513) to the aftermaths of the Civil Wars and the Jacobite era. The Miscellaneous Poems include Blind Old Milton, Hermotimus, The Buried Flower, The Old Camp, and Danube and the Euxine, among others, blending classical allusions with history and landscape. The work’s mood is patriotic and elegiac, extolling fidelity to crown and country while reflecting on exile, memory, and the nation’s past.

Genres: Poetry

304 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1870

About the author

William Edmondstoune Aytoun FRSE was a Scottish poet, a lawyer by training, and Professor of Rhetoric and Belles Lettres at the University of Edinburgh. He published poetry, translation, prose fiction, criticism and satire and was a lifelong contributor to the Edinburgh literary periodical Blackwoods Magazine. He was also a collector of Scottish ballads.

In the early 1850s, Professor Aytoun lent his name as a supporter of the fledgling National Association for the Vindication of Scottish Rights. His distinctive legacy as a teacher has led to him being called the 'first modern professor of English Literature'.

Reviews

[Old-Barbarossa]

Have an old red leather bound copy of this from the 1800's, love it. Each poem is prefaced by a brief Hx of the events described. Wonderful illustrations too.