In addition to the longer poems Scott composed many lyrics, and continued to write such till late in his career. Most of them are passable in a tuneful and picturesque fashion; and in a few, such as Proud Maisie and A Weary Lot is Thine, he attains to something finer and deeper. A ballad from Rokeby has an intensity that gives it a strongly lyrical cast. The conclusion is as follows:
“With burnish’d brand and musketoon
So gallantly you come,
I read you for a bold Dragoon,
That lists the tuck of drum.”
“I list no more the tuck of drum,
No more the trumpet hear;
But when the beetle sounds his hum,
My comrades take the spear.
“And O! though Brignall banks be fair,