Ten Favourite Songs/Loch na Gar

For other versions of this work, see Lachin y Gair.

Loch na Gar.

Away ye gay landscapes, ye gardens of roses!
 In you let the minions of luxury rove;
Restore me the rocks where the snow flake reposes,
 For still they are sacred to friendship and love.
Yet Caledonia! beloved are thy mountains,
 Round their white summits though elements war,
Tho' cataracts foam, 'stead of smooth flowing fountains,
 I sigh for the valley of dark Loch na Gar.

Ah! there my young footsteps in infancy wander'd,
 My cap was the bonnet, my cloak was the plaid.
On chieftains long perished my memory ponder'd,
 As daily I strode through the pine cover'd glade.
I sought not my home till the day's dying glory
 Gave place to the rays of the bright polar star:
For fancy was cheer'd by traditional story,
 Disclos'd by the natives of dark Loch na Gar.

Shades of the dead have I not heard your voices
 Rise on the night-rolling breath of the gale;
Surely the soul of the hero rejoices
 And rides on the wind o'er his own Highland vale.
Round Loch na Gar, while the stormy mist gathers,
 Winter presides in his cold icy car;
Cloud there encircle the forms of my fathers:
 They dwell in the tempest of dark Loch na Gar.

Ill star'd though brave, did no vision foreboding,
 Tell you that fate had forsaken your cause,
Ah! were you destin'd to die at Colloden,
 Victory crown'd not your fall with applause.
Still were you happy in death's early slumber,
 You rest with your clan in the caves of Braemar,
The pibroch resounds to the piper's bold number,
 Your deeds on the echoes of dark Loch na Gar.

Years have roll'd on, Loch na Gar, since I left you,
 Years must elapse ere I tread you again,
Nature of verdure and flow'rs has bereft you;
 Yet still you are dearer than Albion's plain.
England thy beauties are tame and domestic
 To one who has roam'd on the mountain afar,
Oh! for the craigs that are wild and majestic,
 The steep-frowning glories of dark Loch na Gar.