"Skye Boat Song" began as a Gaelic love song, but it became more popular in the late 19th century, with new English lyrics by Sir Harold Boulton, 2nd Baronet. The new version told the story of Prince Charles Edward Stuart ("Bonnie Prince Charlie") as he travelled to the Isle of Skye in an attempt to evade capture by the English (after his 1746 defeat in battle).
Wikipedia notes that "The song was not in any older books of Scottish songs, though it is in most collections like The Fireside Book of Folk Songs. It is often sung as a lullaby, in a slow rocking 6:8 time."
Some listeners will want to know who "Flora" is. Flora MacDonald tried to assist Charles (by disguising him as her maid during the boat trip), but she was later caught and imprisoned for her part in the escape attempt. She and her husband emigrated to North Carolina in 1774.
Lyrics
[Chorus:]
Speed, bonnie boat, like a bird on the wing,
Onward! the sailors cry;
Carry the lad that's born to be king
Over the sea to Skye.
1. Loud the winds howl, loud the waves roar,
Thunderclaps rend the air;
Baffled, our foes stand by the shore,
Follow they will not dare.
[Chorus]
2. Many's the lad, fought on that day
Well the claymore did wield;
When the night came, silently lay
Dead on Culloden's field.
[Chorus]
3. Though the waves leap, soft shall ye sleep,
Ocean's a royal bed.
Rocked in the deep, Flora will keep
Watch by your weary head.
A Second Set of Lyrics
Robert Louis Stevenson did not care for Boulton's lyrics, and wrote his own in 1892, as follows:
[Chorus:]
Sing me a song of a lad that is gone,
Say, could that lad be I?
Merry of soul he sailed on a day
Over the sea to Skye.
1. Mull was astern, Rum on the port,
Eigg on the starboard bow;
Glory of youth glowed in his soul;
Where is that glory now?
[Chorus]
2. Give me again all that was there,
Give me the sun that shone!
Give me the eyes, give me the soul,
Give me the lad that's gone!
[Chorus]
3. Billow and breeze, islands and seas,
Mountains of rain and sun,
All that was good, all that was fair,
All that was me is gone
Video Links (mostly to Boulton's version)
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