408. *Written on a Blank Leaf of Macpherson's 'Ossian.' [XXVII]
This poem should, for variety's sake, take its place among the itinerary Sonnets on one of the Scotch Tours.
409. Cave of Staffa. [XXIX.]
The reader may be tempted to exclaim, 'How came this and the two following Sonnets to be written, after the dissatisfaction expressed in the preceding one?' In fact, at the risk of incurring the reasonable displeasure of the master of the steamboat, I returned to the cave, and explored it under circumstances more favourable to those imaginative impressions which it is so wonderfully fitted to make upon the mind.
410. Ox-eyed Daisy.
'Hope smiled when your nativity was cast,
Children of summer!' (XXXI. ll. 1-2.)
Upon the head of the columns which form the front of the cave, rests a body of decomposed basaltic matter, which was richly decorated with that large bright flower, the ox-eyed daisy. I had noticed the same flower growing with profusion among the bold rocks on the western coast of the Isle of Man; making a brilliant contrast with their black and gloomy surfaces.
411. Iona. [XXXIII.]
The four last lines of this Sonnet are adapted from a well-known Sonnet of Russel, as conveying my feeling better than any words of my own could do.