The Book of Scottish Song/Highland Harry
Highland Harry.
[Burns.—Tune, "Highlander's Lament."—The chorus is from an old song, the hero of which, according to Mr. Peter Buchan, was a Harry Lumsdale, who made love to a daughter of the laird of Knockhaspie. Burns, however, makes his song a Jacobitical one.]
My Harry was a gallant gay;
Fu' stately strode he on the plain;
But now he's banish'd far away,
I'll never see him back again.
Oh, for him back again!
Oh, for him back again!
I wad gi'e a' Knockhaspie's land
For Highland Harry back again.
When a' the lave gae to their bed,
I wander dowie up the glen;
I sit me down, and greet my fill,
And aye I wish him back again.
O, were some villains hangit hie,
And ilka body had their ain,
Then I micht see the joyfu' sicht,
My Highland Harry back again.
Sad was the day, and sad the hour,
He left me in his native plain,
And rush'd his much-wrong'd Prince to join;
But, oh! he'll ne'er come back again!
Strong was my Harry's arm, in war,
Unmatch'd in a' Culloden's plain;
But vengeance marks him for her ain—
I'll never see him back again.