Scottish Poetry Selection
- The Tears of Scotland
Tobias Smollet (1721-1771) was born in the small village of Dalquhurn (now part of Renton) in West Dunbartonshire. In his book "Discovering Scottish Writers" Louis Stott describes Smollet as the "first Scottish novelist and he has never been surpassed." Smollet also wrote a number of poems, the most famous being "The Tears of Scotland" written after the Jacobite Uprising of 1745/46.
The Tears of Scotland
Mourn, hapless Caledonia, mourn
Thy banish'd peace, thy laurels torn!
Thy sons, for valour long renown'd,
Lie slaughter'd on their native ground;
Thy hospitable roofs no more
Invite the stranger to the door:-
In smoky ruins sunk they lie,
The monuments of cruelty.The wretched owner sees afar
His all become the prey of war, -
Bethinks him of his babes and wife,
Then smites his breast and curses life.
Thy swains are famish'd on the rocks
Where once they fed their wanton flocks:
Thy ravish'd virgins shriek in vain;
Thy infants perish on the plain.What boots it then, in every clime,
Through the wide-spreading waste of time,
Thy martial glory, crown'd with praise,
Still shone with undiminish'd blaze?
Thy towering spirit now is broke,
Thy neck is bended to the yoke :-
What foreign arms could never quell
By civil rage and rancour fell.The rural pipe and merry lay
No more shall cheer the happy day;
No social scenes of gay delight
Beguile the dreary winter night;
No strains but those of sorrow flow,
And nought be heard but sounds of woe,-
While the pale phantoms of the slain
Glide nightly o'er the silent plain.O baneful cause, O fatal morn,
Accursed to ages yet unborn!
The sons against their father stood,
The parent shed his children's blood.
Yet, when the rage of battle ceased,
The victor's soul was not appeased;-
The naked and forlorn must feel
Devouring flames and murdering steel!The pious mother, doom'd to death,
Forsaken wanders o'er the heath:
The bleak wind whistles round her head,
Her helpless orphans cry for bread:
Bereft of shelter, food, and friend,
She views the shades of night descend;
And, stretch'd beneath the inclement skies,
Weeps o'er her tender babes, and dies.While the warm blood bedews my veins,
And unimpair'd remembrance reigns,
Resentment of my country's fate
Within my filial breast shall beat;
And, spite of her insulting foe,
My sympathising verse shall flow.
Mourn, hapless Caledonia, mourn
Thy banish'd peace, thy laurels torn!
Where else would you like to go in Scotland?
