The Exile’s Song

Robert Gilfillan (1798–1850)

OH! why left I my hame?

Why did I cross the deep?

Oh! why left I the land

Where my forefathers sleep?

I sigh for Scotia’s shore,

And I gaze across the sea,

But I canna get a blink

O’ my ain countrie.

The palm-tree waveth high,

And fair the myrtle springs;

And, to the Indian maid,

The bulbul sweetly sings.

But I dinna see the broom

Wi’ its tassels on the lee,

Nor hear the lintie’s sang

O’ my ain countrie.

Oh! here no Sabbath bell

Awakes the Sabbath morn,

Nor song of reapers heard

Among the yellow corn:

For the tyrant’s voice is here,

And the wail of slaverie;

But the sun of freedom shines

In my ain countrie.

There ’s a hope for every woe,

And a balm for every pain,

But the first joys o’ our heart

Come never back again.

There ’s a track upon the deep,

And a path across the sea:

But the weary ne’er return

To their ain countrie.