Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, LAMENT OF THE SCOTCH-IRISH EXILE, by JAMES JEFFREY ROCHE


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LAMENT OF THE SCOTCH-IRISH EXILE, by                     Poet's Biography
First Line: Oh, I want to win me hame
Last Line: Ancient history began.
Subject(s): Exiles; Ireland; Lament; Irish


OH, I want to win me hame
To my ain countrie,
The land frae whence I came
Far away across the sea;
Bit I canna find it there, on the atlas anywhere,
And I greet and wonder sair
Where the deil it can be?

I hae never met a man,
In a' the warld wide,
Who has trod my native lan'
Or its distant shores espied;
But they tell me there's a place where my hypothetic race
Its dim origin can trace --
Tipperary-on-the-Clyde.

But anither answers: "Nae,
Ye are varra far frae richt;
Glasgow town in Dublin Bay
Is the spot we saw the licht."
But I dinna find the maps bearing out these pawkie chaps,
And I sometimes think perhaps
It has vanished out o' sight.

Oh, I fain wad win me hame
To that undiscovered lan'
That has neither place nor name
Where the Scoto-Irishman
May behold the castles fair by his fathers builded there
Many, many ages ere
Ancient history began.





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