Border Ballad
Border Ballad - form Summary
Ballad as Martial Rallying Cry
This short ballad is a public call to arms, urging Border clans to assemble and march for the Queen and Scottish honor. It adopts an inclusive, imperative voice: calling men from hills, glens and crags to take up bucklers, lances and bows beneath fluttering banners and blazing beacons. The poem frames collective military action as both a duty and a source of national pride, promising lasting fame from the coming battle.
Read Complete AnalysesMarch, march, Ettrick and Teviotdale, Why the deil dinna ye march forward in order! March, march, Eskdale and Liddesdale, All the Blue Bonnets are bound for the Border. Many a banner spread, Flutters above your head, Many a crest that is famous in story. Mount and make ready then, Sons of the mountain glen, Fight for the Queen and our old Scottish glory. Come from the hills where your hirsels are grazing, Come from the glen of the buck and the roe; Come to the crag where the beacon is blazing, Come with the buckler, the lance, and the bow. Trumpets are sounding, War-steeds are bounding, Stand to your arms, then, and march in good order; England shall many a day Tell of the bloody fray, When the Blue Bonnets came over the Border.
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