"About Douglas as a translator there may be two opinions; about his Aeneid (Prologues and all) as an English book there can be only one. Here a great story is greatly told and set off with original embellishments which are all good – all either delightful or interesting – in their diverse ways."

"Arguably the best version of Virgil in English poetry."

"As to the text accordyng never a deill, Mair than langis to the cart the fift quheill."

"Gavin Douglas, set on a particular labour, with his mind full of Latin quantitative metre, attains a robuster versification than you are likely to find in Chaucer…the texture of Gavin's verse is stronger, the resilience greater."

"Woddis, forrestis, with nakyt bewis blowt, Stude strippyt of thar weid in every howt. So bustuusly Boreas his bugill blew, The deyr full dern doun in the dalis drew; Smale byrdis, flokkand throu thik ronys thrang, In chyrmyng and with cheping changit thar sang, Sekand hidlis and hyrnys thame to hyde Fra feirfull thuddis of the tempestuus tyde."

"Dame naturis menstralis."

"And al smail fowlys syngis on the spray: Welcum the lord of lycht, and lamp of day."

"Ryveris ran reid on spait with watir broune, And burnys hurlys all thar bankis doune."

"Fyrst I protest, beaw schirris, by зour leif Beis weill avisit my wark or зhe reprief; Consider it warly, reid oftar than anys, Weill at a blenk sle poetry nocht tayn is."

"Bot a sentens to follow may suffice me: Sum tyme I follow the text als neir I may, Sum tyme I am constrenyt ane other way."

"The battellis and the man I will discriue, Fra Troyis boundis first that fugitiue By fate to Italie come and coist lauyne, Ouer land and se cachit with meikill pyne By force of goddis aboue fra euery stede Of cruel luno throw auld remembrit feid: Grete payne in batelles sufferit he also, Or he his goddis brocht in Latio And belt the ciete, fra quham of nobil fame The latyne peopill taken has thare name, And eke the faderis, princis of Alba, Come, and the walleris of grete Rome alsua."

"It is richt facil and eith gait, I the tell, Forto discend and pas on down to hell: The blak gettis of Pluto, and that dirk way, Standis evir oppin and patent nycht and day; Bot tharfra to return agane on hyght, And heir abufe recovir this aris licht, That is difficil wark, thar lawbour lyis."

"Oh could I fly, I'd fly with thee! We'd make with joyful wing Our annual visit o'er the globe, Companions of the spring."

"Thy braes were bonnie, Yarrow stream, When first on them I met my lover; Thy braes how dreary, Yarrow stream, When now thy waves his body cover!"

"Thou hast no sorrow in thy song, No winter in thy year."

"The cristall water ran so clere and cold, That in myn ere maid contynualy A maner soun, mellit with armony, That full of lytill fischis by the brym Now here now there with bakkis blewe as lede Lap and playit, and in a rout can swym So prattily, and dressit tham to sprede Thair curall fynnis as the ruby rede, That in the sonne on thair scalis bryght As gesserant ay glitterit in my sight."

"Now was there maid fast by the touris wall A gardyn fair, and in the corneris set Ane herber grene with wandis long and small Railit about; and so with treis set Was all the place, and hawthorn hegis knet."

"Worschippe, ye that loveris bene this May, For of your blisse the kalendis are begonne, And sing with us, “away, winter, away! Cum, somer, cum, the suete sesoun and sonne!”"

"And therewith kest I doun myn eye ageyne, Quhare as I sawe, walking under the tour, Full secretly new cummyn hir to pleyne, The fairest or the freschest yonge floure That ever I sawe, me thoght, before that houre, For quhich sodayn abate anon astert The blude of all my body to my hert."

"The bird, the best, the fisch eke in the see, They live in fredome, everich in his kynd. And I a man, and lakkith libertee."

"So ferr I fallyng into lufis dance, That sodeynly my wit, my contenance, My hert, my will, my nature and my mynd, Was changit clene ryght in anothir kynd."

"Beautee eneuch to mak a world to dote."

"Man mind yourselve is the first commandment."

"Nothing in the world delights a truly religious people so much, as consigning them to eternal damnation."

"Where the pools are bright and deep Where the gray trout lies asleep, Up the river and o'er the lea That's the way for Billy and me."

"Hymns should have unity,graduation and mutual dependence in the thoughts,a conscious progress,a sense of completeness..and be easily understood."

"When to the cross I turn my eyes, And rest on Calvary, O Lamb of God, my sacrifice, I must remember Thee."

"Prayer is the soul's sincere desire, Uttered or unexpressed,— The motion of a hidden fire That trembles in the breast."

"Prayer is the burden of a sigh, The falling of a tear, The upward glancing of an eye When none but God is near."

"Baptize the nations! far and nigh, The triumphs of the cross record The name of Jesus glorify, Till every people call Him Lord."

"If God hath made this world so fair, Where sin and death abound, How beautiful beyond compare Will paradise be found!"

"As a poet Montgomery stands well to the front. His poetic genius was of a high order."

"Return unto thy rest, my soul, From all the wanderings of thy thought, From sickness unto death made whole, Safe through a thousand perils brought."

"Friend after friend departs; Who hath not lost a friend? There is no union here of hearts That finds not here an end."

"Nor sink those stars in empty night: They hide themselves in heaven's own light."

"'T is not the whole of life to live, Nor all of death to die."

"Bliss in possession will not last; Remembered joys are never past; At once the fountain, stream, and sea, They were, they are, they yet shall be."

"Counts his sure gains, and hurries back for more."

"Hope against hope, and ask till ye receive."

"Joys too exquisite to last, And yet more exquisite when past."

"Beyond this vale of tears There is a life above, Unmeasured by the flight of years; And all that life is love."

"When the good man yields his breath (For the good man never dies)."

"Gashed with honourable scars, Low in Glory's lap they lie; Though they fell, they fell like stars, Streaming splendour through the sky."

"Here in the body pent, Absent from Him I roam, Yet nightly pitch my moving tent A day's march nearer home."

"Distinct as the billows, yet one as the sea."

"The nursery of brooding Pelicans, The dormitory of their dead, had vanish'd, And all the minor spots of rock and verdure, The abodes of happy millions, were no more."

"Once, in the flight of ages past, There lived a man."

"Nature's prime favourites were the Pelicans; High-fed, long-lived, and sociable and free."

"Night is the time to weep, To wet with unseen tears Those graves of memory where sleep The joys of other years."