The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #108610   Message #2264315
Posted By: Jim Dixon
16-Feb-08 - 11:39 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: Bannockburn (yet another one!)
Subject: Lyr Add: BANNOCKBURN (Alistair MacDonald)
Copied from http://www.angelfire.com/folk/scotfolk/sb.html:

BANNOCKBURN
Alistair MacDonald

1. Midsummer's eve, thirteen fourteen,
Two armies draw up on the green,
The stoutest force that e'er was seen
Around the Bannock water.
To crush the Scots was Edward's boast,
And rule the land from coast to coast.
Let Scotsmen quail before his host
Like lambs before the slaughter.

CHORUS: Draw the sword at Bannockburn.
See Scottish dignity return.
Let the foreign tyrant learn
Each man is at his station.
Join the lion o' the north
And drive the false invader forth
To show the world o' Scotland's worth,
An independent nation.

2. The Scots outnumbered three to one
Take up their places on the run,
The Chilterns in the morning sun
Defiant as the thistle.
The English lines of armour bright
Present an awesome, fearful sight.
Behind each mounted southern knight
The spears and lances bristle.

3. The mercenary knight de Bohun
In armour black from toe to plume
Spurs out to charge the Bruce's tune
And ca' the nacht o' sorrows.
He thunders at him cross the plain
Bruce wields his pony in disdain
And drives his axe through skull and brain
And ends de Bohun's tomorrows.

4. Then charge the English to the field
Towards the hedge of Scottish steel
And into mud and carnage wheel
In waves of dead and fallen
The Ettrick archers join the fray
And send aloft their deadly spray
And countless in their saddles slay
Who's death knell now is tollen.

5. The name of Douglas sing with pride
MacNeil and Stewart brave beside
And all who swelled that gallant tide
To stem the south's advancing
And here's to Robert Bruce by name
Our own true king renowned in fame
His flag like red and yellow flame
In Scotland's honour dancing.

6. Here's to the Bruce at Bannockburn
With pride, each Scottish heart should burn
As Edward back to London turns
To mourn his fallen glory
Hail the lion of the north
Send trumpeter and herald forth
To tell the world of Scotland's worth
To place in freedom's story.

[From Alistair Macdonald, "Scottish Battle Ballads," 1973.]