The Tyne Exile's Lament
Tune--"Banks o' the Dee."

I sit by the side of the broad rolling river,
That sparkles along on its way to the sea;
But my thoughts fly again o'er the wide heaving main,
To the home of my childhood so happy and free;
The sun with rare splendour may brighten each scene,
All Nature in hues the most gorgeous may shine,
But all is in vain the fond wish to restrian,
I wish I were again on the Banks of the Tyne.

How clearly before me again each bright scene
Of my childhood appears to my sad longing eye;
The wild rugged banks where so often I've played,
And listen'd the river roll murmuring by;
Though brighter the river that rolls at my feet,
And fairer the banks where I sadly recline;
All, all, I'd resign for the bleak hills of mine,
Oh! I wish I were again on the Banks of the Tyne.

Oh Fortune! I pray thee, Oh! list to the prayer
Of the exile who mourns on a far foreign shore;
If here I must die'neath the fierce blazing sky,
And the home of my youth I must never see more;
Take me far, far from here in my still narrow beir,
And lay me where lie all the past race of mine,
With them would I lie where the river rolls by,
On the banks, dearly lov'd, of my own native Tyne.

--Source A Beuk o' Newcassel Sangs.
Joseph Cawhall,
1888