Like tempest-shaken fruit on trees,
So shall they tremble in the skies;
Like heavy rain-drops on the breeze,
Their glory like a dead man’s eyes.
The poetical conceptions of Buchanan on this subject have woven themselves into the theological ideas of the Highlander, like those of Milton into the religious thought of England.
The Skull is well-rendered by Professor Blackie, whose version begins thus:—
I sat all alone
By a cold grey stone,
And behold a skull lay on the ground!