But he could not; he had a
harp and he often tried to play on it; but his clumsy fingers only made such discord that his companions laughed at him and mocked him, and called him a madman because he would not give it up, but would rather sit apart by himself, with his arms about his
harp, looking up into the sky, while they gathered around their fire and told tales to wile away their long night vigils as they watched their sheep on the hills.
"'King of Lochlin, let thy face brighten with gladness, and thine ear delight in the
harp. Dreadful as the storm of thine ocean thou hast poured thy valor forth; thy voice has been like the voice of thousands when they engage in war.
She touched the strings of her instrument--the ancient harp, as she had said, of the pictured St.
The contrast between what I saw and heard now, and what I had seen and heard only a few minutes since, was so extraordinary and so startling that I almost doubted whether the veiled figure with the harp, and the dance of cats, were not the fantastic creations of a dream.
It was Robin Hood, who had borrowed Allan's be-ribboned harp for the time.
"Now who are you, fellow?" quoth the Bishop, "and what do you here at the church-door with you harp and saucy air?"
And so saying, he reached the
harp, and entertained his guest with the following characteristic song, to a sort of derry-down chorus, appropriate to an old English ditty.*
Bertram, if you write to your brother, I entreat you to tell him that my harp is come: he heard so much of my misery about it.
Edmund reverted to the harp, and was again very happy in the prospect of hearing her play.
He slept with his arms around his
harp, as a child sleeps hugging its last new toy.
Arriving in Perth the day after the festivities at Swanhaven, Bishopriggs proceeded to the Harp of Scotland--at which establishment for the reception of travelers he possessed the advantage of being known to the landlord as Mrs.
He left the pass-word unspoken; he went his way on his errand; he was followed on suspicion; and he was discovered to be only "a respectable person," charged with a message by the landlord of the Harp of Scotland Inn!
Up struck the two fiddles and the one
harp, and off went Mr.
His life was spent far from the court and away from the sounds of civil warfare, in the endeavour to set himself in harmony with the universe -- to become, in fact, like an Aeolian
harp through which all the cords of nature might sweep at will.
Yet even in the Old Testament, if you listen to David's
harp, you shall hear as many hearse-like airs as carols; and the pencil of the Holy Ghost hath labored more in describing the afflictions of Job, than the felicities of Solomon.
