SKYE BOAT SONG



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



Loud the winds howl, loud the waves roar,

Thunder clouds rend the air;

Baffled our foe's stand on the shore

Follow they will not dare



CHORUS



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



CHORUS

Many's the lad fought on that day

Well the claymore could wield

When the night came, silently lay

Dead on Culloden's field



CHORUS

Burned are our homes, exile and death

Scatter the loyal men

Yet, e'er the sword cool in the sheath,

Charlie will come again.



CHORUS



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Words by Sir Harold Boulton, Bart., 1884. Music by Annie

MacLeod.



Charles Edward Stewart, the Young Pretender, was routed by the

Duke of Cumberland on Culloden Moor in 1745. Aided by a Jacobite

heroine, Flora MacDonald, Bonnie Prince Charlie escaped to the

island of Skye in the inner Hebrides. He was finally taken by a

French vessel to Morlaix on the coast of Bretagne. The first

half of the tune is said to be an old sea shanty; the other half

is traditionally attributed to Miss MacLeod.



@Scots @royalty @rebel @history @lullaby @water

recorded by Paul Robeson

filename[ SKYEBOAT

DC

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