Mackrimmon's Lament
Mackrimmon's Lament - meaning Summary
Exile and Irrevocable Farewell
Mackrimmon's Lament presents a Highland piper bidding an irrevocable farewell to his clan and country. Facing exile or death, the speaker accepts loss with stoic dignity while invoking funeral imagery (the banshee, pall) and communal sorrow. The repeated Gaelic refrain emphasizes permanence: departure is final and collective—both personal resolve and a cultural lament for a people forced from their shores. The tone mixes brave resignation and elegiac mourning.
Read Complete AnalysesMacLeod's wizard flag from the grey castle sallies, The rowers are seated, unmoor'd are the galleys; Gleam war-axe and broadsword, clang target and quiver, As Mackrimmon sings, 'Farewell to Dunvegan for ever! Farewell to each cliff, on which breakers are foaming; Farewell, each dark glen, in which red-deer are roaming; MacLeod may return, but Mackrimmon shall never! 'Farewell the bright clouds that on Quillan are sleeping; Farewell the bright eyes in the Dun that are weeping; To each minstrel delusion, farewell! - and for ever - Mackrimmon departs, to return to you never! The Banshee's wild voice sings the death-dirge before me, The pall of the dead for a mantle hangs o'er me; But my heart shall not flag, and my nerves shall not shiver, Though devoted I go - to return again never! 'Too oft shall the notes of Mackrimmon's bewailing Be heard when the Gael on their exile are sailing; Dear land! to the shores whence unwilling we sever, Return - return - return shall we never! Cha till, cha till, cha till sin tuille! Cha till, cha till, cha till sin tuille, Cha till, cha till, cha till sin tuille, Gea thillis MacLeod, cha till Mackrimmon!'
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