The sisters ran like
mountain
sheep MS.
William Wordsworth
55
VI The stream that flows out of the lake,
As through the glen it rambles,
Repeats a moan o'er moss and stone,
For those seven lovely Campbells.
Seven little Islands, green and bare, 60
Have risen from out the deep:
The fishers say, those sisters fair,
By faeries all are buried there,
And there together sleep.
Sing, mournfully, oh! mournfully, 65
The solitude of Binnorie.
* * * * *
VARIANTS ON THE TEXT
[Variant 1:
1836.
I could . . . 1807. ]
[Variant 2:
1807.
The Irish Rovers . . . MS. ]
[Variant 3:
1807.
The sisters ran like mountain sheep MS.
And in together did they leap MS. ]
* * * * *
FOOTNOTES ON THE TEXT
[Footnote A: It is a well-known Scottish Ballad. In Jamieson's 'Popular
Ballads', vol. i. p. 50 (1806), its title is "The Twa Sisters. " In
Walter Scott's 'Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border', vol. iii. p. 287, it
is called "The Cruel Sisters. " In 'The Ballads of Scotland', collected
by W. Edmonstone Aytoun (1858), vol. i. p. 194, it is printed
"Binnorie.
VI The stream that flows out of the lake,
As through the glen it rambles,
Repeats a moan o'er moss and stone,
For those seven lovely Campbells.
Seven little Islands, green and bare, 60
Have risen from out the deep:
The fishers say, those sisters fair,
By faeries all are buried there,
And there together sleep.
Sing, mournfully, oh! mournfully, 65
The solitude of Binnorie.
* * * * *
VARIANTS ON THE TEXT
[Variant 1:
1836.
I could . . . 1807. ]
[Variant 2:
1807.
The Irish Rovers . . . MS. ]
[Variant 3:
1807.
The sisters ran like mountain sheep MS.
And in together did they leap MS. ]
* * * * *
FOOTNOTES ON THE TEXT
[Footnote A: It is a well-known Scottish Ballad. In Jamieson's 'Popular
Ballads', vol. i. p. 50 (1806), its title is "The Twa Sisters. " In
Walter Scott's 'Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border', vol. iii. p. 287, it
is called "The Cruel Sisters. " In 'The Ballads of Scotland', collected
by W. Edmonstone Aytoun (1858), vol. i. p. 194, it is printed
"Binnorie.
