The Lay of the Last Minstrel
In Chapter 15 of Emily of New Moon, Emily is punished by having to eat her dinner alone, but soon comforts herself by being absorbed in fancy:
It suddenly occurred to her that she would write an epic poem in imitation of The Lay of the Last Minstrel. Cousin Jimmy had read The Lay to her last Saturday. She would begin the first canto right off.
The Lay of the Last Minstrel
By Sir Walter Scott
(excerpt)
The way was long, the wind was cold,
The Minstrel was infirm and old;
His wither’d cheek, and tresses gray,
Seem’d to have known a better day;
The harp, his sole remaining joy,
Was carried by an orphan boy.
The last of all the Bards was he,
Who sung of Border chivalry;
For, welladay! their date was fled,
His tuneful brethren all were dead;
And he, neglected and oppress’d,
Wish’d to be with them, and at rest.
No more on prancing palfrey borne,
He caroll’d, light as lark at morn;
No longer courted and caress’d,
High placed in hall, a welcome guest,
He pour’d, to lord and lady gay,
The unpremeditated lay:
Old times were changed, old manners gone;
A stranger filled the Stuarts’ throne;
The bigots of the iron time
Had call’d hs harmless art a crime.
A wandering Harper, scorn’d and poor,
He begg’d his bread from door to door.
And timed, to please a peasant’s ear,
The harp, a king had loved to hear….
The entire poem can be read at Poet’s Corner
Source
http://www.theotherpages.org/poems/minstrel.html#introduction
