A Wraith In The Mist

By Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Sir, I should build me a fortification if I came to live here. -- Boswell's Johnson.

On the green little isle of Inchkenneth
Who is it that walks by the shore,
So gay with his Highland blue bonnet,
So brave with his targe and claymore?

His form is the form of a giant,
But his face wears an aspect of pain;
Can this be the Laird of Inchkenneth?
Can this be Sir Alan McLean?

Ah, no! It is only the Rambler,
The Idler, who lives in Bolt Court,
And who says, were he Laird of Inchkenneth,
He would wall himself round with a fort.