Burns' Night

Happy birthday to the National Bard, Mr R. Burns. We humans don't change in emotions, and his work, like so many of the previous generations speaks across the ages. Here's a few that people may be less familiar with.

 

---My Heart's In The Highlands [1]---

1.
Farewell to the Highlands, farewell to the North,
The birthplace of valour, the country of worth!
Wherever I wander, wherever I rove,
The hills of the Highlands for ever I love.

Chorus
My heart's in the Highlands, my heart is not here,
My heart's in the Highlands a-chasing the deer,
A-chasing the wild deer and following the roe -
My heart's in the Highlands, wherever I go!

2.
Farewell to the mountains high cover'd with snow,
Farewell to the straths and green valleys below,
Farewell to the forests and wild-hanging woods,
Farewell to the torrents and loud-pouring floods!

 

---I'll Go And Be A Sodger [2]---

O, why the deuce should I repine,
And be an ill foreboder?
I'm twenty-three and five feet nine,
I'll go and be a sodger.
 
I gat some gear wi' meikle care,
I held it weel thegither;
But now it's gane - and something mair:
I'll go and be a sodger.

 

---Epigram On Parting With A Kind Host In The Highlands [3]---

When Death's dark stream I ferry o'er,
(A time that surely shall come,)
In Heav'n itself I'll ask no more,
Than just a Highland welcome.