[Page 131]
THE BANISHED MAN,
ON A DISTANT VIEW OF HIS COUNTRY, WHICH HE IS QUITTING FOR EVER.
1 DEAR distant land, whose mountains blue
2 Still bound this wild and watery view, —
3 Dear distant land, where fate has thrown
4 All that my heart delights to own!
5 Blest be yon gleam of partial light,
6 Which gives thee to my parting sight!
7 Those well-known cliffs, whose shadows throw
8 Soft coolness o'er the beech below,
9 Where I so oft, a happy child,
10 Picking or shell or weed, beguiled
11 Light reckless hours, that passed away,
12 Like night-sparks on the briny spray, —
[Page 132]13 Dear pleasant shore, thy sandy bed,
14 These feet unblessed no more shall tread!
15 Still thy rich vales with autumn's store,
16 And cheerful hamlets mottled o'er;
17 Thy up-land peaks whose stately forms
18 Are mantled oft in gathering storms;
19 Thy blue streams widening on their way,
20 Thy broad lakes gleaming to the day;
21 Thy smoking towns, whose towers of war
22 And dusky spires are seen afar,
23 Thy children's boastful pride will raise,
24 And fix the admiring stranger's gaze, —
25 But now, for ever lost to me,
26 These eyes unblest no more shall see.
27 Thy wild pipe, touched with rustic hands,
28 Thy reapers' song from merry bands;
29 Thy boatman's call and dashing oar,
30 Thy falling torrent's deaf'ning roar;
31 Thy busy city's humming sound,
32 With all its sweet bells chiming round,
[Page 133]33 Far, on a strange and cheerless shore,
34 These ears unblest shall hear no more.
35 Happy is he, beyond all gain,
36 Who holds in thee his free domain,
37 And roves with careless feet at will
38 O'er his paternal mead and hill,
39 And stores the fruit his harvests yield
40 From his own orchard and his field!
41 Happy is he who leads at dawn
42 His harnessed steers across thy lawn!
43 Yea, happy he, bent down with toil,
44 Whose glistening brow bedews thy soil!
45 How gently heaves the evening sea,
46 As all things homeward tend to thee!
47 Borne lightly on the gentle gale,
48 Now homeward points each little sail!
49 Far, screaming from their airy height,
50 The sea-fowl homeward take their flight;
51 The floating plank and spreading weed,
52 Upon the setting current speed;
[Page 134]53 The light cloud passes on the wind,
54 While I alone am left behind.
55 Ah, woe is me! where shall I stray,
56 And whither bend my reckless way?
57 A waste of world before me lies,
58 But in the thought my spirit dies.
59 There is no home nor joy for me,
60 My native land, removed from thee.
61 For me the sun of heaven doth shine
62 Upon no hills, no plains but thine;
63 For me the voice of kindness sounds
64 Only within thy cheerful bounds.
65 Rise, surgy deep, ye wild winds blow
66 And whelm my bark these waves below!
67 Then bear me to my native land:
68 A breathless corse upon her strand,
69 Some hand, in pity of the dead,
70 Will lay her greensward on my head,
71 And there for ever let me rest,
72 As sleeps the froward child, stilled on his mother's breast.
About this text
Title (in Source Edition): THE BANISHED MAN, ON A DISTANT VIEW OF HIS COUNTRY, WHICH HE IS QUITTING FOR EVER.
Author: Joanna Baillie
Themes:
Genres:
occasional poem
Text view / Document view
Source edition
Baillie, Joanna, 1762-1851. Fugitive Verses. By Joanna Baillie, author of “Dramas on the Passions,“ etc. London: Edward Moxon, Dover Street. MDCCCXL., 1840, pp. 131-134. (Page images digitized from a copy in the Bodleian Library [40.17].)
Editorial principles
Typography, spelling, capitalization, and punctuation have been cautiously modernized. The source of the text is given and all significant editorial interventions have been recorded in textual notes. This ECPA text has been edited to conform to the recommendations found in Level 5 of the Best Practices for TEI in Libraries version 4.0.0.
Other works by Joanna Baillie
- ADDRESS TO A STEAM VESSEL. ()
- ADDRESS TO THE MUSES. ()
- THE BLACK COCK, WRITTEN FOR A WELCH AIR, CALLED “THE NOTE OF THE BLACK COCK.” ()
- A CHEERFUL-TEMPERED LOVER'S FAREWELL TO HIS MISTRESS. ()
- A CHILD TO HIS SICK GRANDFATHER. ()
- DEVOTIONAL SONG FOR A NEGRO CHILD. ()
- A DISAPPOINTMENT. ()
- THE ELDEN TREE. A BALLAD. ()
- EPILOGUE TO THE THEATRICAL REPRESENTATION AT STRAWBERRY HILL, WRITTEN BY JOANNA BAILLIE AND SPOKEN BY THE HON. ANNE S. DAMER, NOVEMBER, 1800. ()
- FRAGMENT OF A POEM. ()
- FY, LET US A' TO THE WEDDING. (AN AULD SANG NEW BUSKIT.) ()
- HOOLY AND FAIRLY. (FOUNDED ON AIN OLD SCOTCH SONG.) ()
- THE HORSE AND HIS RIDER. ()
- A HYMN FOR THE KIRK. ()
- HYMN FOR THE SCOTCH KIRK. ()
- HYMN. ()
- HYMN. ()
- HYMN. ()
- HYMN. ()
- HYMN. ()
- HYMN. ()
- HYMN. ()
- A HYMN. ()
- JOB XIII. 15. ()
- THE KITTEN. ()
- A LAMENTATION. ()
- LINES FOR A FRIEND'S ALBUM. ()
- LINES ON THE DEATH OF SIR WALTER SCOTT. ()
- LINES ON THE DEATH OF WILLIAM SOTHEBY, ESQ. ()
- LINES TO A PARROT. ()
- LINES TO A TEAPOT. ()
- LINES TO AGNES BAILLIE ON HER BIRTHDAY. ()
- LONDON. ()
- LORD JOHN OF THE EAST, A Ballad. ()
- MALCOLM'S HEIR. A TALE OF WONDER. ()
- A MELANCHOLY LOVER'S FAREWELL TO HIS MISTRESS. ()
- THE MERRY BACHELOR, (FOUNDED ON THE OLD SCOTCH SONG OF “WILLIE WAS A WANTON WAG.”) ()
- THE MOODY SEER, A BALLAD. ()
- A MOTHER TO HER WAKING INFANT. ()
- NIGHT SCENES OF OTHER TIMES. A Poem, in Three Parts. ()
- A NURSERY LESSON (DEVOTIONAL). ()
- A POETICAL OR SOUND-HEARTED LOVER'S FAREWELL TO HIS MISTRESS. ()
- A PROUD LOVER'S FAREWELL TO HIS MISTRESS. ()
- A REVERIE. ()
- RHYMES FOR CHANTING. ()
- RHYMES. ()
- A SAILOR'S SONG ()
- SCHOOL RHYMES FOR NEGRO CHILDREN. ()
- A SCOTCH SONG. ()
- SECOND DEVOTIONAL SONG. ()
- A SECOND HYMN FOR THE KIRK. ()
- SECOND NURSERY LESSON (ADMONITORY). ()
- SELECT VERSES FROM THE 147TH PSALM. ()
- SIR MAURICE. A Ballad. ()
- SONG WRITTEN FOR THE STRAWBERRY HILL FOUNDLING PLAY, AND SUNG BY MRS. JOURDAIN. ()
- SONG, (FOR A SCOTCH AIR.) ()
- A SONG, (WRITTEN FOR MR. STRUTHER'S COLLECTION OF SONGS.) ()
- SONG, A NEW VERSION OF AN OLD SCOTCH SONG. ()
- SONG, CALLED THE COUNTRY LADY'S REVEILLIE. ()
- SONG, FOR AN IRISH AIR. ()
- SONG, FOR AN IRISH MELODY. ()
- SONG, POVERTY PARTS GOOD COMPANY, ()
- SONG, WOO'D AND MARRIED AND A', ()
- SONG, WRITTEN AT MR. THOMSON'S REQUEST, AS A KIND OF INTRODUCTION TO HIS IRISH MELODIES. ()
- SONG, WRITTEN FOR A WELCH AIR, CALLED “THE NEW YEAR'S GIFT.” ()
- SONG, WRITTEN FOR A WELCH AIR, CALLED “THE PURSUIT OF LOVE.” ()
- SONG, WRITTEN FOR A WELCH MELODY. ()
- SONG, WRITTEN FOR AN IRISH AIR. ()
- A SONG, WRITTEN FOR AN IRISH MELODY. ()
- SONG. ()
- SONG. ()
- SONG. (TO THE SCOTCH AIR OF “MY NANNY O.”) ()
- ST. JOHN XXI. 1. ()
- ST. LUKE VII. 12. ()
- ST. LUKE XVIII. 16. ()
- ST. MATTHEW V. 9. ()
- A SUMMER'S DAY. ()
- THIRD DEVOTIONAL SONG. ()
- A THIRD HYMN FOR THE KIRK. ()
- THOUGHTS TAKEN FROM THE 93RD PSALM. ()
- THUNDER. ()
- TO A CHILD. ()
- TO MRS. SIDDONS. ()
- TO SOPHIA J. BAILLIE, AN INFANT. ()
- THE TRAVELLER BY NIGHT IN NOVEMBER. ()
- TWO BROTHERS. ()
- TWO SONGS. ()
- VERSES SENT TO MRS. BAILLIE ON HER BIRTHDAY, 1813. ()
- VERSES TO OUR OWN FLOWERY KIRTLED SPRING. ()
- VERSES WRITTEN IN FEBRUARY, 1827. ()
- VOLUNTEER'S SONG, WRITTEN IN 1803. ()
- A WINTER'S DAY. ()