If I Were Old

If I were old, a broken man and blind,
and one should lead me to Mid-Eildon’s crest,
and leave me there a little time to rest
sharing the hilltop with the Border wind,
the whispering heather, and the curlew’s cry,
I know the blind dark could not be so deep,
so cruel and clinging, but that I
should see the sunlit curve of Cheviot’s steep
rise blue and friendly on the distant sky!

There is no darkness – God! there cannot be —
so heavy as to curtain from my sight
the beauty of those Border slopes that lie
far south before me, and a love-found light
would shine upon the slow Tweed loitering by
with gift of song and silver to the sea!-
No dark can ever hide this dear loved land from me