Written in a Jacobite style the lyrics unfold heroric figures, ambition, optimism, failure, defiance, expectation of return and future glory.
Robert Louis Stevenson felt the words unworthy and wrote new lyrics for the tune. I use his verses for my setting. His version concentrates on the inner feelings of the defeated prince. The ambition and optimism of the original lyrics have been replaced by a sense of weary loss. Stevenson’s repeated use of ‘Give me’ in verse two, especially, emphasizes the depth of longing for that earlier time when hope mingled with the expectation of glory.
The original lyrics end with a defiant ‘Charlie will come again’ but in Stevenson’s version he has the speaker realize that he has lost everything, even his own identity: ‘All that was me is gone.’ The ‘lad’ he once was is gone and will never return.
For my musical setting I chose to match the simple chorus and verse structure with textural modulation: choruses use all voices; verses alternate male and female close-harmony trios.
The composition ends with a suggestion of bitonality to musically render the blurred horizon of where the sea meets the sky (Skye) and the dual loss of battle and self-identity.
Text:
[Chorus:] Speed, bonnie boat, like a bird on the wing,
Onward! the sailors cry;
Carry the lad that's born to be king
Over the sea to Skye.
1. Mull was astern, Rum on the port,
Eigg on the starboard bow;
Glory of youth glowed in his soul;
Where is that glory now?
[Chorus]
2. Give me again all that was there,
Give me the sun that shone!
Give me the eyes, give me the soul,
Give me the lad that's gone!
[Chorus]
3. Billow and breeze, islands and seas,
Mountains of rain and sun,
All that was good, all that was fair,
All that was me is gone.
[Chorus]