10 Best Famous Distain Poems

209. Song—M'Pherson's Farewell

 FAREWELL, ye dungeons dark and strong,
 The wretch’s destinie!
M’Pherson’s time will not be long
 On yonder gallows-tree.


Chorus.—Sae rantingly, sae wantonly,
 Sae dauntingly gaed he;
He play’d a spring, and danc’d it round,
 Below the gallows-tree.


O, what is death but parting breath?
 On many a bloody plain
I’ve dared his face, and in this place
 I scorn him yet again!
 Sae rantingly, &c.


Untie these bands from off my hands,
 And bring me to my sword;
And there’s no a man in all Scotland
 But I’ll brave him at a word.
 Sae rantingly, &c.


I’ve liv’d a life of sturt and strife;
 I die by treacherie:
It burns my heart I must depart,
 And not avengèd be.
 Sae rantingly, &c.


Now farewell light, thou sunshine bright,
 And all beneath the sky!
May coward shame distain his name,
 The wretch that dares not die!
 Sae rantingly, &c.