Canadian Boat Song
The Canadian Boat Song is an anonymously written song that first came to the public in the early 19th century. The question of his authorship is the subject of many literature.
The Canadian Boat song was first published in the Noctes Ambrosianae column of Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine in September 1829. The column named it as a song translated from Gaelic into English . However, Gaelic scholars reject this claim.
It was said to have received the song from a certain "Christopher North" from Upper Canada . From this one assumes optionally that he was John Wilson , William Dunlop , John Galt , John Gibson Lockhart , David Macbeth Moir or Walter Scott . The most likely is Moir's authorship, the most unlikely is the thesis that Scott was the author of the song.
text
Listen to me, as when ye 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:
Fair these broad meads - these hoary woods are grand ;
But we are exiles from our fathers' land.
From the lone shieling 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:
Fair these broad meads - these hoary woods are grand;
But we are exiles from our fathers' land.
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:
Fair these broad meads - these hoary woods are grand;
But we are exiles from our fathers' land.
When the bold kindred, in the time long-vanish'd,
Conquer'd the soil and fortified the keep, -
No seer foretold the children would be banish'd,
That a degenerate Lord might boast his sheep:
Fair these broad meads - these hoary woods are grand;
But we are exiles from our fathers' land.
Come foreign rage - let Discord burst in slaughter!
O then for clansman true, and stern claymore -
The hearts that would have given their blood like water,
Beat heavily beyond the Atlantic roar:
Fair these broad meads - these hoary woods are grand;
But we are exiles from our fathers' land.
Footnotes
- ↑ a b c Linda Dowler: The authorship of the "Canadian Boat Song": a bibliographical note ( Memento of the original from December 21, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , in Canadian Poetry, sixth annual edition, 1980
- ↑ Caroline Gerson; Gwendolyn Davies: Canadian poetry from the beginnings through the First World War , McClelland & Stewart, 2010, ISBN 978-0-7710-9364-7
- ↑ a b D. MR Bentley: The "Canadian Boat Song": a mosaic ( Memento of the original from October 19, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , in Canadian Poetry, sixth annual edition, 1980
