Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Scotland: Vols. VI–VIII. 1876–79.

Strathairly

Coming Hame

By Dinah Maria Mulock Craik (1826–1887)

THE LIFT is high and blue,

And the new moon glints through

The bonnie corn-stooks o’ Strathairly;

My ship ’s in Largo Bay,

And I ken it weel,—the way

Up the steep, steep brae of Strathairly.

When I sailed ower the sea,—

A laddie bold and free,—

The corn sprang green on Strathairly;

When I come back again,

’T is an auld man walks his lane,

Slow and sad through the fields o’ Strathairly.

Of the shearers that I see,

Ne’er a body kens me,

Though I kent them a’ at Strathairly;

And this fisher-wife I pass,

Can she be the braw lass

That I kissed at the back of Strathairly?

O, the land ’s fine, fine!

I could buy it a’ for mine,

My gowd ’s yellow as the stooks o’ Strathairly;

But I fain yon lad wad be,

That sailed ower the salt sea,

As the dawn rose gray on Strathairly.