by William Soutar (1898 - 1943)
Ballad
Language: Scottish (Scots)
O! shairly ye hae seen my love Down whaur the waters wind: He walks like ane wha fears nae man And yet his e’en are kind. O! shairly ye hae seen my love At the turnin o’ the tide; For then he gethers in the nets Doun be the waterside. O! lassie I hae seen your love At the turnin o’ the tide; And he was wi’ the fisher-folk Doun be the waterside. The fisher-folk were at their trade No far frae Walnut Grove; They gether’d in their dreepin nets And fund your ain true love.
View text with all available footnotes
Research team for this page: Iain Sneddon [Guest Editor] , Mike Pearson
Confirmed with William Soutar, Poems in Scots and English, selected by W R Aitken, Scottish Academic Press, Edinburgh, 1972, page 95
Authorship:
- by William Soutar (1898 - 1943), "Ballad", written 1943, appears in Collected Poems, first published 1948 [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by Louis Cheslock (1898 - 1981), "Ballad" [mezzo-soprano or alto and piano] [ sung text not yet checked against a primary source]
- by James MacMillan (b. 1959), "Ballad", 1994, copyright © 1996, first performed 1994 [voice and piano], from Three Scottish Songs, no. 2. [ sung text checked 1 time]
Research team for this page: Iain Sneddon [Guest Editor] , Mike Pearson
This text was added to the website: 2015-03-10
Line count: 16
Word count: 96