The stag at eve had drunk his fill,
Where danced the moon on Monan’s rill,
And deep his midnight lair had made
In lone Glenartney’s hazel shade.

These lines are from Sir Walter Scott’s narrative poem *The Lady of the Lake* (1810), set in the Trossachs and around Loch Katrine in the Scottish Highlands. Scott opens the poem with vivid natural description that situates the reader in a specific Highland landscape—streams, glens, and nocturnal shelter—before the human action begins. The place-names (Monan’s rill, Glenartney) anchor the scene in real geography associated with Perthshire/Stirlingshire, reflecting Scott’s Romantic-era interest in local topography, folklore, and the picturesque. The stanza functions as atmospheric scene-setting, establishing a wild, secluded environment where pursuit and encounter will soon unfold.

The passage paints a tranquil yet watchful Highland evening: a stag drinks at dusk, moonlight “dances” on a stream, and the animal beds down in a secluded hazel-shaded glen. Scott’s imagery romanticizes the natural world as both beautiful and sheltering, but also as a stage for imminent disruption—wildlife at rest implies a calm that can be broken by hunters or conflict. The precise place-names lend authenticity and evoke a sense of rootedness, while the cadence and internal music of the lines create a lullaby-like calm. In the larger poem, such serenity heightens suspense by contrasting with the chase and political tensions that follow.