BONNIE STRATHNAVER.
Bonnie Strathnaver! Sutherland's pride,
With thy stream softly-flowing, and mead spreading wide;
Bonnie Strathnaver, where now are the men
Who peopled with gladness thy green-mantled glen?
Bonnie Strathnaver!
Bonnie Strathnaver! Sutherland's pride,
Sweet is the breath of the birks on thy side;
But where is the blue smoke that curled from the glen,
When thy lone hills were dappled with dwellings of men?
Bonnie Strathnaver!
Bonnie Strathnaver! O tearful to tell
Are the harsh deeds once done in thy bonnie green dell,
When to rocks of the cold blastful ocean were driven
The men on thy green turfy wilds who had thriven,
Bonnie Strathnaver!
When the lusty-thewed lad, and the light-tripping maid,
Looked their last on the hills where their infancy strayed,
When the grey, drooping sire, and the old hirpling dame
Were chased from their hearths by the fierce-spreading flame,
Bonnie Strathnaver!
Bonnie Strathnaver! Sutherland's pride,
Wide is the ruin that's spread on thy side;
The bramble now climbs o'er the old ruined wall,
And the green fern is rank in the tenantless hall,
Bonnie Strathnaver!
Bonnie Strathnaver, Sutherland's pride,
Loud is the baa of the sheep on thy side,
But the pipe and the song, and the dance are no more,
And gone the brave clansmen who trod thy green floor.
Bonnie Strathnaver!
Bonnie Strathnaver, Sutherland's pride,
Vain are the tears which I weep on thy side;
The praise of the bard is the meed of the glen,
But where is the charm that can bring back the men
To Bonnie Strathnaver?
