The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #151101   Message #3526563
Posted By: Jim Dixon
14-Jun-13 - 07:44 PM
Thread Name: Lyr Req: My Name Is Calder Rivers (Calder Rivers)
Subject: Lyr Add: CALDER BRAES (Lewis)
Probably not the song that was wanted, but not to be ignored:

From The Musical Cyclopedia: Being a Collection of the Most Approved English, Scottish, and Irish Songs... by James W. Wilson (London: Parry & Co., 1852), page 84:


CALDER BRAES.
Lewis.

1. When cares were few, and life was young,
On Calder's braes I danced and sung,
Unpained by keen remorse's dart,
Joy flow'd spontaneous from my heart:
To crown the happy, mundane scene,
I loved—nor did I love in vain,
The theme of all my artless lays,
Was my dear lass of Calder braes.

2. Thrice happy days, your loss I mourn,
You're gone—ah! "never to return;"
Ambition's ignis fatuus' glare
Transform'd my bliss to black despair.
The pomp of war, and pride of arms,
Appear'd with such resistless charms,
I left (to face my country's faes)
My weeping maid on Calder braes.

3. In martial conflict first I shone,
In climes below the burning zone;
Beneath Seringapatam's wall,
I saw the tyrant sultan's fall;
Amidst the carnage of the day,
Where dead and dying round me lay,
'Midst cannons' roar, and lightnings' blaze,
I thought on peaceful Calder braes.

4. With laurels crown'd, with wealth array'd,
Again I sought my native shade,
In hopes my long-lost love to meet,
To lay my laurels at her feet;
Alas! I never saw her more,
My sanguine dreams of bliss are o'er,
My only pleasure's now to gaze
On her loved grave on Calder braes.