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The author of this book, Francis Yelland, was born at Court
Mills, St.Stephen in Brannel,
THE
EXILE'S LAY:
VALEDICTORY
TO THE LAND OF HIS BIRTH
AND
SALUTATORY TO THAT OF
HIS
ADOPTION:
AND
OTHER POEMS.
BY
THE BORDER MINSTREL.
Francis Yelland
PUBLISHED BY JAMES FRENCH & Co.,
1855.
ii
Entered
according to Act of Congress in the year 1855, by
JAMES FRENCH & CO.,
In
the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the District of
Massachusetts.
iii
PREFACE
A stranger, having
voluntarily sacrificed home with its early friendships, ties of kindred and love
of country at the shrine of freedom, by crossing the Atlantic, and settling
down among your hills and vales as an American citizen, bringing (though small
and insignificant the offering) his purse, his hands, an unsullied name, and
habits of honest industry, to the feet of Columbia, now tremblingly offers for
her acceptance the first fruits of his humble muse.
In justice to himself,
it may be proper for the author to state, that many of these poems are juvenile
efforts, and that the first three were composed amid constant interruptions and
other discouraging circumstances, during a portion of last winter's leisure
hours.
In the longer poem,
while giving vent to national feelings, and sometimes using strong language, it
has been his study to excite the admiration, rather than the jealousy of
Americans toward their mother country.
The design of the
author in exposing, in this country, the faults of England, (in the second
part) is to foster in the minds of other Anglo-adopted citizens a feeling of
duty toward the country of their birth; that they may echo back the songs of
Columbian Freedom, and contribute what
they can to relieve Britian
from the evils that have too long existed there. English liberals are doing
much; but they have much to contend with, and their progress is slow; and if
any who have escaped those evils can assist them, and share the honors they are
winning, it should be their pleasure to do so.
The language used
toward the aristocracy may be severe, but it would be well if there were less truth
and justice and more poetry in it. There are however, good,
honest and humane individuals among them; if honesty and goodness be compatible
with the tacit support of such a dislocated system of society.
The tribute paid to
the country of his adoption (in the third part) is sincere and involuntary, but
he would that time had enabled him to have made it more worthy of the glorious
theme which his humble muse has attempted to sing.
The whole is designed
to show that, while the foreign-born citizen forgets not the land of his birth,
(and who can,) he still can love and appreciate the country of his adoption;
and aid in making the two great Anglo-Saxon nations better acquainted with each
other, that the Old may emulate the New, and strengthen the common ties of
language, literature and brotherhood.
TO
A FOND MOTHER AND A
KIND
AND INDULGENT FATHER,
WHO
ARE NOW SLUMBERING FAR
AWAY
BENEATH THE SHADE OF THE OLD
GRAY
TOWER; AND WHOSE UNCLOGED SPIRITS
MAY
BE HOVERING NEAR THEIR WANDERING
CHILD,
AND SYMPATHIZING IN HIS FATE,
THIS
LITTLE VOLUME IS DUTIFULLY
AND
AFFECTIONATELY DEDI-
CATED,
BY THEIR SON,
THE
AUTHOR.
THE EXILE'S LAY Part First.
THE EXILE'S LAY Part Second.
THE EXILE'S LAY Part Third.
KOSSUTH'S ADDRESS to the Northern Despots
TRIBUTE to the American Soldiers who fell
in the Mexican War
SHINE ON MY PATH AGAIN, Star of my Soul
LINES on visiting a young and fair Niece on
her death bed
THE BEREAVED AND FRENZIED MOTHER
THE MOTHER'S ROSE, an Allegory
'TIS SUNSHINE wherever thou art
THE MOTHER'S lament for her child
STANZAS on the death of a pious brother
STANZAS, written after having been five weeks
at sea
THE SHEPHERD BOY'S MIDNIGHT SONG
LINES TO A YOUNG LADY after her recovery from
a severe and sudden illness
STANZAS ON SEEING A LOVELY GIRL LOOKING SAD
LINES ON THE DEATH OF MY MOTHER
THE COMPLAINT OF THE VOLUNTARY EXILE
STANZAS to Miss G-------
CARDIGAN'S ADDRESS TO HIS BRIGADE
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