(with thanks to Sir Walter Scott)
It is sad to hear a Summer’s
last gasp sigh
as through balding forests rising winds cry,
when sweet and sour notes fill Autumn’s ear
a year’s sun filled season’s last tune we hear!
Far more sad when on foreign shore we stand
listing the tender memories of our own land!
Memories of legends from youth and infancy
taught in our Scottish classrooms as a legacy!
Chief of our historic tales, Wallace of Caledon
waking clannish memories in each Scottish son!
Whether on a far off scorching coast we toil
or north, on the Arctic’s freezing snowy soil,
hearing music of our land, we close sad eyes
rousing our patriotism, then illusions arise!
Our souls open to where once we would dwell
the waving trees in forests and the lochs swell!
Each wanderer has visions feeding his brain
of reaching his native Scottish shore again!
Are such feelings for the homesick confined
now just awakening in a Scot’s poetic mind?
Each patriot knows his truth is on this page
not least for far off Scots tears to engage!
From Westminster to beyond China’s red fire
sons of Scotland are there, always to inspire!
The proudest Scottish thinkers to all we give
as part of us, our ancestors will always live!
More proudly now, for all the world approved
of Scotland, from where it’s sons first moved! |