Sir Walter Scott

One great writer to explore is Scottish writer Sir Walter Scott [1771-1832]. He wrote the great knights and castles adventure story Ivanhoe but also lots of verse and other novels. He's a bit like Longfellow or Whitman, but with a more lively and visual pace. His Marmion: a Tale of Flodden Field in Six Cantos [1808] is very enjoyable to read. Read it all here.

Here's an excerpt:

INTRODUCTION TO CANTO THIRD.
TO WILLIAM ERSKINE, ESQ.

Ashestiel, Ettrick Forest.


Like April morning clouds, that pass,
With varying shadow, o’er the grass,
And imitate, on field and furrow,
Life’s chequer’d scene of joy and sorrow;
Like streamlet of the mountain north,                      
Now in a torrent racing forth,
Now winding slow its silver train,
And almost slumbering on the plain;
Like breezes of the autumn day,
Whose voice inconstant dies away,                        
And ever swells again as fast,
When the ear deems its murmur past;
Thus various, my romantic theme
Flits, winds, or sinks, a morning dream.
Yet pleased, our eye pursues the trace                    
Of Light and Shade’s inconstant race;
Pleased, views the rivulet afar,
Weaving its maze irregular;
And pleased, we listen as the breeze
Heaves its wild sigh through Autumn trees;        
[...]


And don't forget he wrote his often quoted lines in this work, in Canto VI, stanza 17, ie:

Oh! what a tangled web we weave
When first we practise to deceive!
A Palmer too! No wonder why
I felt rebuked beneath his eye