New-York tribune., 1909-01-02
4 FAMOUS SONG.
Some Notes on It's Much Disputed
authorship.

From The Manchester Guardian.
There u more than one -et os verses known -
the name % The Canadian Boat Song but tfe
Canadian Boat Song par excellence Is t1a-
vvh-a in 1879 appeared IN ''Bla a-k~-Ot II the
course of one o: the "Noc-es Ar1orosianae." Il
= well known wherever the English language i
spoken for one o. It's srarzas. wEtC! Is s. often
rnisquoteG that it -s worth transcrihtng n -
correct form here
From -se loan s-ie-l7s o.: - misty isaud
,t9.n''.t1s 4,.ss : ana ~ Nsste u rstT-4 ssfT
Ana We IL dreams behold he Hebr.ies
Far these. broad meads-,aese Hoars woods are
Ia- ~ az eale= from oa- fathers land.
Arr. q. i Fraser in the opening paper Of MS
new volume The Lone Sh.ehng mas gone very
-ngeni0u-ly into the obscure question % the
authorship of the poem He disInIsses the idea
tCat i Is translation from the Gaelic partly On
rEs ground that not the least rfS-lEe Of Gaelic
original has eyer Lee1 heard of. he dismisses the
authorship of either Lockrart or Gait because
for one Thing, neither vas quite III 10 write II
and he dsuis=es the authorship Of the twelfth
Earl - Eglinrou because ne feeling ot the poem
t. democratic. while that ~ MS Lordship was.
presumably. very much the reverse He holds.
rather FOR the authorship ~ Professor Wilson.
Th- means BY which ha supports his conclusion
are exceedingly Interesting Wilson's, he ar
CUES. Of those minds which are subject
more than others 70 fixed mental pictures
mental pictures. that IS. which. when they have
reen expressed in an image in prose or verse, do
not forthwith dissolve and vanish. but. instead,
persist and find expression again and again on
other occasfons-and Mr.. Fraser claims u be
with the rest Of Wilson'S work OF the same
period IN virtu. OF three such pictures which II
has in common with II First. there Is the con
CePtiou Of the lone shieilug- Evidence IA led
70 show that Wilson'S imagination At that time
vas haunted by the thought OF shieings IN
lonely places. Sometimes Il is on The noun
tai-'s secret top" sometimes in the central
gloom OF woods. and sometimes in a deep glen
but always the site Is in a wilderness A. Zines
the absence Of the shieling Is remarked:
N shepherds cot IS here-no Smelling
The phrase "hoarv wood hints al another OBJ
session The thought # forests as ancient and
unchangea BILE had taken a strong hold on the
poets mind and as everything old was III those
DAYS ''hoary" with Wilson. he employs the odd
locution "hoary woods lOcutiOn not paral-
leIaG Mr Fraser thinks elsewhere in the poetry
Of the time than in the 'hOary trees" OF another
poem. Finally. in another stanZa Of the Boat
Song occur the lines IN which the exlles reflect
that they will never again
Il. arms around the patriarch banner rally.
Nor see The moon on roy@i toHlostones gleam-
The thought of the royal tombstones at first
seems to break the simplicity Of the poem, but
after all there was the churchyard OF Iona and.
especially. rnoonlit tombstones were just then
one Of Wilson's Expresses" Thus in one poem
he and his friends sit
Pale in the moonlight that was coldly sleeping
ON heaving sod and marble monument
Again
In ali the loveness on earth il
Walks through the moonlight Of the cemetery
While in Hymn he sings
The loving ones We loved the best
And the wan moonlight bethes in rest
Their monumental stone
Obviously such reasonings cannot issue in abb
solute fnality, but Mr. Fraser has made out
strong case and could only satisfactorily get
rid Of certain problems connected with ne wen
known article in "Taits Magazine for 1S49 one
would not much object 20 accepting WILSON'S
authorship.