Canadian Boat Song
Listen
to me, as when ye heard our father
Sing long ago the song of other shores
Listen to me, and then in chorus gather
All your deep voices, as ye pull your oars.
Fair
these broad meads, these hoary woods are grand;
But we are exiles from our fathers' land.
From
the lone shieling of the misty island
Mountains divide us, and waste of seas
Yet still the blood is strong, the heart is Highland,
And we in dreams behold the Hebrides.
We
ne'er shall tread the fancy-haunted valley,
Where 'tween the dark hills creeps the small clear stream,
In arms around the patriarch banner rally,
Nor see the moon on royal tombstones gleam.
When
the bold kindred, in the time long vanis'hd,
Conquer'd the soil and fortified the keep
No seer foretold the children would be banish'd,
That a degenerate lord might boast his sheep.
Come
foreign rage, let Discord burst in slaughter!
O then for clansmen true, and stern claymore
The hearts that would have given their blood like water,
Beat heavily beyond the Atlantic roar.
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