Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, CANADIAN BOAT SONG, by ANONYMOUS


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

CANADIAN BOAT SONG, by                    
First Line: Fair these broad meads - these hoary woods are grand
Last Line: Beat heavily beyond the atlantic roar
Subject(s): "hebrides (islands), Scotland;


FAIR these broad meads -- these hoary woods are grand;
But we are exiles from our fathers' land.

Listen to me, as when you heard our father
Sing long ago the song of other shores --
Listen to me, and then in chorus gather
All your deep voices, as ye pull your oars.

From the lone sheiling of the misty island
Mountains divide us, and the waste of seas --
Yet still the blood is strong, the heart is Highland,
And we in dreams behold the Hebrides.

We ne'er shall tread the fancy-haunted valley,
Where 'tween the dark hills creeps the small clear stream,
In arms around the patriarch banner rally,
Nor see the moon on royal tombstones gleam.

When the bold kindred, in the time long vanish'd,
Conquered the soil and fortified the keep, --
No seer foretold the children would be banish'd
That a degenerate lord might boast his sheep.

Come foreign rage -- let Discord burst in slaughter!
O then for clansmen true, and stern claymore --
The hearts that would have given their blood like water,
Beat heavily beyond the Atlantic roar.





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