Song

My heart is on the faithless wave, That bore my love away:— The sun that gilds both tree and tower, Brings me no happy day!— The ways of life are dimly seen, They shine through sorrow’s tear; When all is bright with pleasure’s beam, Misfortune’s shades appear.

My creel hangs in a corner now, That leapt with silver fry; And I, whose maurlain aye was full, In poverty must sigh! O friendship’s a deceitful gleam, That gilds our happy years; But, like the sunshine of a dream, It leaves us in our tears.

Yon castle bows its lofty head, Where gilded turrets shone; Now that it lies in ruin’s bed, Its fate is like my own! The lads who’d bleed to save it still Are pillow’d on the deep; Their winding sheet the ocean’s brine!— Their monument its steep!

The violin’s mute in Jeanie’s cot, Its master’s now at rest! The wave, when dewy evening falls, Is curling o’er his breast. My cheerful hearth is desolate; My children all are gone! And in a weary world I’m left To struggle through alone.

Some say, there’s joy in weeping long, That gladness springs from grief; To me, nor weary day, nor night, Can ever bring relief! The ways of life are dimly seen, They shine through sorrow’s tear; When all is bright with pleasure’s beam Misfortune’s shades appear.

From dark Northumbria to the Orcades, Echo’d in Scotland’s bays the voice of wo, Like that wild yell that rises when th’ Hindoo Ascends the funeral pile. Lost mothers mourn’d Like Niöbe for their children; pining maids Wander’d like Suilmatha on the beach, In search of the dear lonely bark that bore Their absent lovers, who must ne’er return! The bud, unblossom’d then, was doom’d to shed Its earliest tears while listening to this tale; And the cold Dutchman, leaning on his oar, Would smooth his rugged brow, distend his soul, Then bless his dank canals, and doff his pipe, When he was told his kinsman’s fearful fate On thy rough shores, Dunbar! And princes too Might weep the fate of those whose toils obscure Enrich’d a nation; even as Charles wept Beside the fisher’s tomb where Beuckel slept!