In the moldering ruins of Holyrood Castle,
where Mary Queen of Scots lived, loved, suffered,
where her secretary Rizzio was murdered,
in the crumbling Abbey where Mary prayed,
Mendelssohn found the spirit of a symphony,
Hastily scribbled the first few lines.
Journeying across the Highlands, facing the weather
and extreme solitude, he added notes and sketches.
In the tossing boat taking him to Iona and to Staffa,
home of Fingal’s Cave, the Scottish landscapes steeped
in his soul. There they brewed for ten years—
when the Scottish Symphony emerged.