Poetry like that of A Mackay, of Moyhall (1821), of Archibald Grant, of Glenmoriston (1863), of John Macinnes (1875), Callum Macphail (1879), and of John Macfadyen (1890), shows excellent ease in verse-making, and no small amount of humour at times; but it does not demand serious examination. That so many volumes should be published indicates much activity and energy on the part of an obscure Gaelic muse.
Another bard of the name of Grant may be mentioned as belonging to this class. Many of the popular lyrics have been composed by authors who have not given us more than one or two songs. Mo Nighean Dubh was written by the Rev. Mr Morrison of Petty; Mairi Laghach, by John Macdonald of Lochbroom; Bonneid is it, by A. Macalister of Islay; Eilein an Fhraoich, by M. MacLeod of Lewis. The mass of lyrics of this class is something enormous. When translated into English they are felt to be simple—sometimes painfully simple—metrical inartistic utterances of love-enkindled hearts. Attached to tender and often very pretty airs they have lived on the lips of thousands, and have cheered weary workers in the field and at the fireside. Of the nameless class of plaintive lilts is the following:—Mo Run Geal Dileas, well known throughout the Highlands. There are many versions of it, and the number of verses is scarcely ever the same. The [chorus is rather] unintelligible, and may have belonged to an earlier set of verses. The verses translated give a very fair conception of the merits and the spirit of the original. Like the Laureate’s Mariana, many of these Highland singers show much of the “a-weary, a-weary” condition of soul, and people of pretended lofty moral culture condemn the poor lyrists for manifesting such excess of feeling.
My faithful fair one, my own, my loved one,
My faithful fair one, return again;
O, I return not! my love, I may not;
For my own dear one is weak with pain.
O, that I were in the form of sea-gull,
That swims so lightly upon the sea;
Soon would I leave for the isle of Islay,
Where lives the maiden that grieved me.