Listen to me as when you heard our fathers
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–
Fair those broad meads, those hoary
woods are grand,
But we are exiles from our native land.
From the lone shieling on the misty island,
Mountains divide us and a 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 fairy-haunted
valley,
Where ’twixt the dark hills creeps the
small clear stream,
In arms around the patriarch’s banner rally,
Nor see the moon on royal tombstones
gleam.
When the bold kindred in the times long
vanished,
Conquered the soil and fortified the
keep,
No seer foretold the children would be
banished,
That a degenerate lord might boast his
sheep.
Come foreign raid, let discord burst in
slaughter–
Oh! Then for clansmen’s true and keen
claymore;
The hearts that would have given their
blood like water,
Beat heavily beyond the Atlantic’s roar.
Fair those broad meads, those hoary
woods are grand,
But we are exiles from our native land.
The poem with the stressed
syllables underlined:
Listen to me as when you heard our fathers
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–
Fair those broad meads, those hoary
woods are grand,
But we are exiles from our native land.
From the lone shieling on the misty island,
Mountains divide us and a 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 fairy-haunted
valley,
Where ’twixt the dark hills creeps the
small clear stream,
In arms around the patriarch’s banner rally,
Nor see the moon on royal tombstones
gleam.
When the bold kindred in the times long
vanished,
Conquered the soil and fortified the
keep,
No seer foretold the children would be
banished,
That a degenerate lord might boast his
sheep.
Come foreign raid, let discord burst in
slaughter–
Oh! Then for clansmen’s true and keen
claymore;
The hearts that would have given their
blood like water,
Beat heavily beyond the Atlantic’s roar.
Fair those broad meads, those hoary
woods are grand,
But we are exiles from our native land.
Analysis:
I have heard the phrase “The blood is
strong, the heart is Highland” before in
connection with Canadian links to Scot-
land, but I never found the poem it came
from until recently. I think it is rather
good. It is obviously a composed English
piece, it is not anything translated from
Gaelic. Traditional Gaelic songs are usual-
ly not so focused, they are more like blues
songs, that refer disjointedly to people and
events. Gaels, like all traditional people,
had their working songs: songs that were
sung to past the time when doing some
repetitive action like churning or rowing.
That sort of song seems to be what the
title is referring to, but they are never as
flowery in their language as this.
The poet certainly seems to have
some knowledge of Gaelic culture and
rudimentary knowledge of their language.
The “children” referred to is the “clan”.
The Gaelic word “Clann” means children,
but can refer to the Highland tribe. The
“patriarch” mentioned is the chief of the
clan, the symbolic father of the tribe or
"children". The “fairy-haunted” valleys
mentioned refers to the belief in fairies
in Gaelic Scotland, which was far was
common and accepted than modern
English-speakers imagine. No Gael
would even bring up the subject of fairies
so casually, it reflects the view of an
outsider. “Hoary” in the poem seems
to mean “ancient” or “gloomy”. There
was an influential Gaelic poem of that
era entitled: “The Gloomy Forest”
concerning Canada. The great number
of unstressed syllables is remarkable and
seem designed to give to poem a pro-
nounced lilt. The word "patriarch" is the
most difficult word to pronounce with
the right stress on the last syllable, and
requires the poem to be practiced before
performing.
I suppose, this poem would be seen
as sentimental by the previous generation,
being as there used to be some many
mawkish Irish and Scottish songs around
in which immigrants expressed their
longing for their motherland. To me it
hits different, because it is the only song
I know, for whatever faults it has, that
expresses the Scottish-Canadian relation
to Scotland. With the mention of "heart"
and "blood" it makes that argument that
we are as biologically Scottish as any-
one in Scotland, and instead of former
Scots, we should be considered Scots
in exile, that being a Scot is an inter-
national identity. I think this would
be of advantage to the Scottish people
and the Gaelic language and culture.
Parts of Scottish culture have been
preserved in Canada (as they have
been in the past) after they have died
out in Scotland, and this diaspora could
prove itself helpful again in the future
as a place of refuge if Scotland is under
threat in the future.
© C.A. MacLennan 2024
You can see videos of me reading
poems at:
Poetry & Folklore - YouTube
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