The Book of Scottish Song/Exile of Uldoonan
Exile of Uldoonan.
[John Grieve.—The air of this is given in "The Scottish Minstrel," and is said to have been long current in the north of Scotland as the composition of John M'Murdo of Kintall. It is the same as what appears among the Irish Melodies under the name of "The Legacy."]
Adieu to rock and to water-fall,
Whose echoes start among Albyn's hills,
A long adieu, Uldoonan! and all
Thy wildwood steeps, and thy sparkling rills.
From the dreams of my childhood and youth I awaken,
And all the sweet visions that fancy wove;
Adieu! ye lone glens, and ye braes of green braken,
Endeared by friendship, and hope, and love.
The stranger came, and adversity's wind
Blew cold and chill on my father's hearth;
I strove, but vainly, some shelter to find
Among the fields of my father's birth:
But my desolate spirit shall never be severed
From the home where a sister and mother once smiled,
Though within its bare walls lies the roof-tree all shivered,
And mouldering rubbish is spread and piled.
I hear before me the waters roar;
I see the galley in yonder bay,
All ready and trim, she beckons the shore,
And seems to chide my longer stay.
Uldoonan! when lingering afar from thy valley,
At my pilgrimage close o'er the billowy brine,
Harps long will be strung, and new voices will hail thee,
Without devotion and love like mine.