LXXIX.
Reading edition
MY HEART’S IN THE HIGHLANDS.
Tune—“Failte na Miosg.”
[The words and the air are in the Museum, to which they were contributed by Burns. He says, in his notes on that collection, “The first half-stanza of this song is old; the rest mine.” Of the old strain no one has recorded any remembrance.]
I.
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 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.
II.
Farewell to the mountains high cover’d with snow; Farewell to the straths and green valleys 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; Chasing the wild deer, and following the roe— My heart’s in the Highlands wherever I go.
