My Poem of the Week: 'My Heart's in the Highlands' by Robert Burns

[narya_flame]

It's Burns Night, so my choice was only going to come from one author this week.  I should probably have made more effort to choose one of his poems in Scots, but this is a personal favourite - I used to recite it when I first moved to Lancashire, and was desperate to get back to Scotland.

My Heart's in the Highlands

Farewell to the Highlands, farewell to the north,

The birth-place of Valour, the country of Worth;

Wherever I wander, wherever I rove,

The hills of the Highlands for ever I love.

 

My heart’s in the Highlands, my heart is not here;

My heart’s in the Highlands, a-chasing the deer;

A-chasing the wild-deer and following the roe,

My heart’s in the Highlands, wherever I go.

 

Farewell to the mountains high-cover’d with snow;

Farewell to the straths and green vallies below;

Farewell to the forests and wild-hanging woods;

Farewell to the torrents and loud-pouring floods.

My heart’s in the Highlands, my heart is not here;

My heart’s in the Highlands, a-chasing the deer;

A-chasing the wild-deer and following the roe,

My heart’s in the Highlands, wherever I go.

Comments

[rekishi]

That is achingly tragic

[narya_flame]

It certainly evokes the longing for home.

[fiachairecht]

Feeling this one a lot tonight. Oidhche na taigeise sona dhuit <3

[narya_flame]

And the same to you, lovely, a bit belatedly <3

[mithrial]

I love Burns night celebrations. I've been to some good ones. Big events and intimate small group of friends ones. I once had on at home where we ordered a haggis so large we had to halve it to fit the Aga. (Those that survived the evening had it for lunch with us the following day.) Ach yeah! We were hard core.

I can't do the Tatties- awful potato allergy, but I can do the Haggis and Swede...and Whiskey.

It's a shame we'll all miss it this year. That poem definitely needs to be read aloud by a native. (In a kilt)

[narya_flame]

I miss the ones in St Andrews, it was like second Christmas :D

It is a beautiful poem, I don't do it justice when I read it aloud...my Yorkshire accent doesn't suit it!