Tune—" Maids of Arrochar." May, 1806.
O WEEP not, my love though I go to the war,
For soon I'll return, rich with honours to thee ;
The soul rousing pibroch is sounding afar,
And the clans are assembling in Morar-craiglee ;
Our flocks are all plunder'd our herdsmen are murder'd,
And, fir'd with oppression, aveng'd we shall be ;
To-morrow we'll vanquish these ravaging English,
And then I'll return to thy baby and thee.
Slow rose the morn on Dunscarron's dark brow,
Firm rose our youths in their fighting array,
Powerful as Morven they rush'd on the foe,
And the din of the battlefield deafened the day ;
The conflict was glorious, our clans were victorious,
Yet sad was the Bard the dark herald to be,—
Ah ! poor weeping Flora, thy dear promised Morar
Will never return to thy baby and thee.
The whole of this song was contained in a letter written by the Author to his friend James Barr, on 1st May, 1806; and the name Morar-craiglee was written Morar-glenlee, but we could not discover either of these names in history. The whole of the song appeared in the Glasgow Nightingale of 1806, page 208. See the first Note to No. 13. The first stanza was not printed in any of the editions till Ramsay's of 1838, and then as a fragment without any comment.—Ed.
[Semple 97]