The Christmas Bagpipes

I heard on Christmas Eve the bonny bagpipes play;
The thin silver skirling, it sounded far away;
The yellow mellow light shone through my neighbor’s panes,
And on the starry night came the shrill dear strains.

Despite the welter of the wide cold sea,
They brought bonny Scotland across the world to me;
And my heart knew the heather that my sense had never smelt,
And my spirit drank the hill wind my brows had never felt.

From the old kind books came the old friends trooping,
And the old songs called, like the curlew swooping;
And like a sudden sup that was hot and strong and sweet,
The love of bonny Scotland, it ran from head to feet.

O blessings on the heather hills, in white mist or sun!
O blessings on the kind books that make the clans as one!
And blessings on the bagpipes whose magic spanned the sea,
And brought bonny Scotland across the world to me!