6/9/2014 The Lay of the Last Minstrel - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lay_of_the_Last_Minstrel 1/2

First edition title page

"This is my own, my native land"

quoted from "The Lay of the Last

Minstrel" on Walter Scott's stone slab

at the Makars' Court outside The

Writers' Museum in Edinburgh

The Lay of the Last MinstrelFrom Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"The Lay of the Last Minstrel" (1805) is a long narrative poem byWalter Scott. ( It should not be confused with The Minstrelsy of theScottish Border, also by Walter Scott, compiled three years previously.)

Overview

In the poem, Lady Margaret Scott of Buccleuch, the "Flower of Teviot" isbeloved by Baron Henry of Cranstown an ally of the Ker Clan, but a deadlyfeud exists between the two border clans of Scott and Carr/Ker, which hasresulted in the recent murder of Lady Margaret's father, Sir Walter Scott ofBuccleuch by the Kers on the High Street in Edinburgh. Maragaret'swidowed mother – Lady Janet – hates the Ker clan as a result, and isadamant in refusing her consent to any suggestion of marriage between thelovers. The lines in its 6th Canto that begin "Breathes there the man, withsoul so dead, Who never to himself hath said, This is my own, my nativeland!" are cited in Edward Everett Hale's famous story "The Man Without aCountry" (1863).

Preface

"The Poem, now offered to the Public, is intended to illustrate thecustoms and manners which anciently prevailed on the Borders ofEngland and Scotland. The inhabitants living in a state partly pastoral andpartly warlike, and combining habits of constant depredation with theinfluence of a rude spirit of chivalry, were often engaged in scenes highlysusceptible of poetical ornament. As the description of scenery andmanners was more the object of the Author than a combined and regularnarrative, the plan of the Ancient Metrical Romance was adopted, whichallows greater latitude, in this respect, than would be consistent with thedignity of a regular Poem. The same model offered other faculties, as itpermits an occasional alteration of measure, which, in some degree,authorizes the change of rhythm in the text. The machinery, also, adoptedfrom popular belief, would have seemed puerile in a Poem which did notpartake of the rudeness of the old Ballad, or Metrical Romance.

"For these reasons, the Poem was put into the mouth of an ancient Minstrel, the last of the race, who, as he issupposed to have survived the Revolution, might have caught somewhat of the refinement of modern poetry,without losing the simplicity of his original model. The date of the Tale itself is about the middle of the sixteenthcentury, when most of the personages actually flourished. The time occupied by the action is Three Nights andThree Days."

External links

6/9/2014 The Lay of the Last Minstrel - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lay_of_the_Last_Minstrel 2/2

The text of The Lay of the Last Minstrel (http://www.theotherpages.org/poems/minstrel.html)

The Lay of the Last Minstrel at Archive.org (http://www.archive.org/search.php?

query=creator%3A%22Scott%2C%20Walter%2C%20Sir%2C%201771-

1832%22%20AND%20%28lay%20ministrel%29)

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Categories: Poetry by Walter Scott 1805 poems

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