My Heart's in the Highlands
written in 1789
My Heart's in the Highlands - context Summary
Composed in 1789
Written in 1789, this short lyric captures Burns’s nostalgic longing for the Scottish Highlands. The speaker repeatedly states that his heart belongs to the Highlands even when he is elsewhere, and enumerates farewell scenes—mountains, glens, forests, rivers—as things he loves and leaves behind. The tone mixes affectionate memory and wistful exile rather than political argument. Repetition and plain diction create an immediate, songlike quality that emphasizes emotional attachment to landscape and a homesickness rooted in rural simplicity and traditional Highland life.
Read Complete AnalysesMy 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 I go. 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 I love. Farewell to the mountains, high-cover'd with snow, Farewell to the straths and green vallies below; Farewell to the forests and wild-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 I go.
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