Claud Halcro's Song
Claud Halcro's Song - meaning Summary
Farewell and Unresolved Longing
This poem is a farewell lament in which the speaker leaves Northmaven and mourns a lost lover. He addresses landscape and sea features while acknowledging broken vows and the unlikelihood of reunion. The natural images—ferry, skerries, waves—underscore distance and danger, while speculation about an island without deceit expresses wishful escape. The tone mixes resignation, bitterness, and a faint hope for spiritual anchoring beyond earthly betrayal.
Read Complete AnalysesFarewell to Northmaven, Grey Hillswicke, farewell! The storms on thy haven, The storms on thy fell - To each breeze that can vary The mood of thy main, And to thee, bonny Mary! We meet not again! Farewell the wild ferry, Which Hacon could brave, When the peaks of the Skerry Where white in the wave. There's a maid may look over These wild waves in vain,- For the skiff of her lover- He comes not again! The vows thou hast broke, On the wild currents fling them; On the quicksand and rock Let the mermaidens sing them. New sweetness they'll give her Bewildering strain; But there's one who will never Believe them again. O were there an island, Though ever so wild, Where woman could smile, and No man be beguiled - Too tempting a snare To poor mortals were given; And the hope would fix there, That should anchor in heaven.
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