---
title: "Farewell Song to the Banks of Ayr"
author: "Robert Burns"
form: "Song"
year: "1786"
tune: "Roslin Castle"
location: "Mossgiel"
source: "Project Gutenberg #1279 — Poems and Songs of Robert Burns"
source_url: "https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/1279/pg1279.txt"
canonical_url: "https://robert-burns.com/poems/farewell-song-to-the-banks-of-ayr/"
---

# Farewell Song to the Banks of Ayr

## Preface
“I composed this song as I conveyed my chest so far on my road to Greenock, where I was to embark in a few days for Jamaica. I meant it as my farewell dirge to my native land.”—R. B.

## Song
The gloomy night is gath’ring fast,  
Loud roars the wild, inconstant blast,  
Yon murky cloud is foul with rain,  
I see it driving o’er the plain;  
The hunter now has left the moor.  
The scatt’red coveys meet secure;  
While here I wander, prest with care,  
Along the lonely banks of Ayr.

The Autumn mourns her rip’ning corn  
By early Winter’s ravage torn;  
Across her placid, azure sky,  
She sees the scowling tempest fly:  
Chill runs my blood to hear it rave;  
I think upon the stormy wave,  
Where many a danger I must dare,  
Far from the bonie banks of Ayr.

’Tis not the surging billow’s roar,  
’Tis not that fatal, deadly shore;  
Tho’ death in ev’ry shape appear,  
The wretched have no more to fear:  
But round my heart the ties are bound,  
That heart transpierc’d with many a wound;  
These bleed afresh, those ties I tear,  
To leave the bonie banks of Ayr.

Farewell, old Coila’s hills and dales,  
Her healthy moors and winding vales;  
The scenes where wretched Fancy roves,  
Pursuing past, unhappy loves!  
Farewell, my friends! farewell, my foes!  
My peace with these, my love with those:  
The bursting tears my heart declare—  
Farewell, the bonie banks of Ayr!

---

Source: [Project Gutenberg #1279 — Poems and Songs of Robert Burns](https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/1279/pg1279.txt)  
Canonical HTML: https://robert-burns.com/poems/farewell-song-to-the-banks-of-ayr/