More about this song
This is an overtly political song, with clear Jacobite sympathies, and Burns is believed to have composed a short early version of the song which was published in the Edinburgh Gazeteer in 1792.
However, when forced to defend himself against charges of political disaffection, he asserted that the 'the only poems he had contributed to the Gazeteer had 'nothing to do with Politics' (Kingsley), which suggest that Burns didn't necessarily send the poem himself, which, of course, would enable him to refute such allegations.
The song uses some fairly provocative language for the period; 'And wha winna wish gude luck to our cause' and 'It's gude to support Caledonia's cause/ And bide by the Buff and the Blue (whig colours). And the intentions are clear in line 7; 'Here's a health to Charlie, the chief o' the clan/ Altho' that his band be sma' / May liberty meet with success!'
It's interesting to note that, while the Jacobite uprising was ostensibly to return the Stuart line to the British throne, there are clear examples in poetry and songs like this, that ideas of Scottish nationhood and liberty should not be discounted as a motive to rally support for the cause.
The fact that a great majority of the Jacobite army was raised in the Highlands is addressed in line 35; 'Here's Chieftain McLeod, a chieftain worth gowd/Tho' bred amang mountains o'snaw!' and this is used in relation to the whole of Scotland, 'Here's friends on baith sides o' the Forth / And friends on baith sides o' the Tweed', which deliberately creates the image of an entire nation's united in the struggle for liberty.
Iain Macdonald
