| Edmund Clarence Stedman, ed. (1833–1908). A Victorian Anthology, 1837–1895. 1895. |
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| The Exile’s Song |
| | | Robert Gilfillan (1798–1850) |
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| OH! why left I my hame? | |
| Why did I cross the deep? | |
| Oh! why left I the land | |
| Where my forefathers sleep? | |
| I sigh for Scotia’s shore, | 5 |
| And I gaze across the sea, | |
| But I canna get a blink | |
| O’ my ain countrie. | |
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| The palm-tree waveth high, | |
| And fair the myrtle springs; | 10 |
| And, to the Indian maid, | |
| The bulbul sweetly sings. | |
| But I dinna see the broom | |
| Wi’ its tassels on the lee, | |
| Nor hear the lintie’s sang | 15 |
| O’ my ain countrie. | |
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| Oh! here no Sabbath bell | |
| Awakes the Sabbath morn, | |
| Nor song of reapers heard | |
| Amang the yellow corn: | 20 |
| For the tyrant’s voice is here, | |
| And the wail of slaverie; | |
| But the sun of freedom shines | |
| In my ain countrie. | |
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| There ’s a hope for every woe, | 25 |
| And a balm for every pain, | |
| But the first joys o’ our heart | |
| Come never back again. | |
| There ’s a track upon the deep, | |
| And a path across the sea; | 30 |
| But the weary ne’er return | |
| To their ain countrie. | |
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