Farewell to the Highlands, farewell to the North,
The birth-place of Valour, the country of Worth;
Wherever I wander, wherever I rove,
The hills of the Highlands for ever 1 love.
Farewell to the mountains, high covered with snow:
Farewell to the straths and green valleys below;
Farewell to the forests and high-hanging woods;
Farewell to the torrents and loud-pouring floods.
My heart’s in the Highlands, my heart is not here,
My heart’s in the Highlands, a-chasing the deer,
Chasing the wild deer and following the roe.
My heart’s in the Highlands wherever 1 go.
In 1734 William Burns died. After the father’s death Robert
and Gilbert worked hard, but the land gave poor crops, and the
affairs of the family went from bad to worse. The young poet
keenly felt the injustice of the world, where the best land, pastures,
and woods belonged to the landlords. His indignation was expressed
in his many verses, which became so dear to the hearts o f the
common people. ( “Is There for Honest Poverty”, “John
Barleycorn”, ‘Epistle to Dovie, a Brother Poet”, “Lines Written
on a Bank-note”).
Robert was very young, w'hen he understood that poverty could
ruin his whole life: he had fallen in love with Jean Armour and
was going to marry her, but the girl’s father did not want to have
a poor peasant for his son-in-low. The fact that the young people
loved each other did not alter his intention to marry Jean to a rich
man. Seeing that there was no way fora poor peasant in Scotland,
Burns decided to sail for Jamaica. To earn money, Robert decided
to pubiisli some ofhis poems. The little volume “Poems Chiefly in
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