I never much liked the poetic style of storytelling but, now that I'm older, I enjoyed reading this "good 'ole Scottish" yarn. Noting that Mr. Hamilton presented this book to English teachers and his/her schoolboy readers, the inclusion of solid introductory notes as to the history of the events recounted and of the Commentaries at the completion of its telling, helped me to enjoy it much more and without the flights of fancy Sir Walter used to maintain its poesy. ( )

This long poem with six cantos with many long parts. Each canto depicts a single day. Three men vie for the love of Ellen Douglas. However, feuds are present and the Highland clans and lowland Scots war against one another. My favorite parts of the poem are not the portions dealing with feuds or wars but the passages describing the natural beauty of the region. Scott's love of nature manifests itself in the descriptions and creates wonderful pictures for readers to envision. For the most part, Scott uses the rhyme scheme AABBCCDDEEFF, etc. Each numbered part within the canto seems to vary a little from the section above it. Many of these stanzas, particularly the ones describing nature, would serve well as stand-alone poems. Together they weave a story. ( )

I loved this. My 1907 edition has copious footnotes which are fascinating reading, expanding on and explaining many of the references and word choices in the poem, and occasionally getting sniffy about some poetical crime or other that Scott has committed.

The poem itself is a revelation. How many reiterations of this story have we heard in much less transporting language? Beautiful. ( )

My sweetheart loves Jane Austen, in every form - paper and ink, or audio readings, or DVDs of performances. In Persuasion, we are set to ponder: Lady of the Lake, or Marmion? It's a wonder to hear Sir Walter Scott held up as the examplar of a Golden Age of Poetry. Weren't Keats and Coleridge writing then? Maybe my time line is a mess. But there is no denying that Sir Walter Scott was fabulously popular in his day, and not just his later novels. These long poems were something people cherished!

That day is so distant. Book length poems are mighty scarce, hardly more read than written. And poetry's popularity has simply evaporated. I imagine it was radio. It makes me wonder, how was poetry read, a long poem like this. The poetic structure, the rhythm and rhyme, make such poetry easy to read aloud - it is much more predictable than prose. What did people do with their time, before radio and TV and all the rest? Sure, one can sit by oneself with a book. But sharing a story is fun too, a nice way to hang around the fire. Maybe just one person needs a candle and others can listen in the dark.

The other day I was talking with the proprietress of the used bookstore down the street, who was being rather harsh, I think, to Edward Bulwer Lytton. I don't know that Bulwer Lytton wrote any poetry, but he certainly wrote potboiler historical fiction right in line with Scott's. Bulwer Lytton is even more forgotten than Scott, at least once folks tire of ridiculing him: "It was a dark and stormy night" - just because Snoopy liked it - hey, look at a list of novels most popular in the nineteenth century! Just because a style is out of fashion - OK, really great literature doesn't go out of fashion - Tristram Shandy could have been written yesterday, it is so fresh. But most of what gets read today will fade just as thoroughly as Bulwer Lytton or Scott. Which isn't to say that today's literature isn't worth reading and enjoying. It is to say, though, that Scott and Bulwer Lytton, too, can be read and enjoyed today, if the reader can just let go of the prejudices of current fashion.

Lady of the Lake is a lot like Ivanhoe. That's probably the full list of books I've read by Scott! They're not profound at all. They're just good entertainment. No doubt they can be analyzed and contemporary politics revealed etc. But if you can enjoy stories of knights and Kings and bardic minstrels and the wild country of Scotland from Loch Katrine to the town of Stirling - book length poems don't have to be as challenging as Milton or Browning. Scott's Lady of the Lake is rollicking fun! ( )

I think this was the first of Scott's long poems I read. I recall being terrified by the "nonnday hag" while reading it in bed in my uncle's farmhouse in Maine ( )