Highlander's Farewell Poem by Colin Ian Jeffery

Highlander's Farewell

Rating: 5.0


Alone in darkness he stands
Unseen behind rocks on a beach
Washed and worn by salty tides
Bidding adieu to his bonnie prince
Who fled the bloody battlefield
Betraying Scotland's flowers
Men and boys - youngest only nine
Laying massacred among the heather.
Small of stature, immense in clan pride
Blood-splattered with kilt in tatters
Highlander waits in misery for the dawn.
Men like shadows creep across the shingle
Huddled against the cold in rowing boat
As it pulls away from shore into the mist
Where a French warship waits with sails set.
Highlander remains alone on the beach
In tears raises his claymore in salute
Shouting into the howling wind
"Will ye nay come back again? "

Thursday, July 13, 2017
Topic(s) of this poem: history,scotland
POET'S NOTES ABOUT THE POEM
After the battle of Culloden in 1746, the young pretender
Bonnie Prince Charlie fled back to France leaving Scotland
at the mercy of the British redcoats
COMMENTS OF THE POEM
Jayne Davies 29 January 2022

A wonderful description. Well written. Well done!

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John Beaton 14 September 2018

As the son of a Skye crofter, a group seriously disadvantaged by the Clearances in the aftermath of Culloden, I can identify strongly with this, Colin. Charles hid for a while after the battle, notably going with Flora MacDonald to Skye (as in the Skye Boat Song) , and eventually left from Lochaber. A cairn there marks his point of departure. There's much irony in that last line.

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Colin Ian Jeffery

Colin Ian Jeffery

Redhill Hospital
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