Helen Maria Williams: Collected Lyrics
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Public-domain lyrics

Evan Banks

Helen Maria Williams

“Evan Banks” as printed in The Book of Scottish Song (1843).

Helen Maria Williams: Collected Lyrics Text 1 1843 · historical text
Public domainScottish songFolk
Complete public-domain lyrics

This text comes from The Book of Scottish Song, edited by Alexander Whitelaw, a historical songbook transcribed on Wikisource and reproduced from the pinned revision linked below.

Verse 1

Slow spreads the gloom my soul desires,

The sun from India's shore retires:

To Evan banks with temp'rate ray,

Home of my youth, he leads the day.

Oh! banks to me for ever dear!

Oh! stream whose murmurs still I hear!

All, all my hopes of bliss reside

Where Evan mingles with the Clyde.

And she, in simple beauty drest,

Whose image lives within my breast!

Who, trembling, heard my parting sigh,

And long pursued me with her eye.

Does she, with heart unchanged as mine,

Oft in the vocal bowers recline?

Or, where yon grot o'erhangs the tide,

Muse while the Evan seeks the Clyde?

Ye lofty banks that Evan bound!

Ye lavish woods that wave around,

And o'er the stream your shadows throw,

Which sweetly winds so far below;

What secret charm to mem'ry brings

All that on Evan's border springs!

Sweet banks! ye bloom by Mary's side:

Blest stream! she views thee haste to Clyde.

Can all the wealth of India's coast

Atone for years in absence lost?

Return, ye moments of delight;

With richer treasures bless my sight!

Swift from this desert let me part,

And fly to meet a kindred heart!

Nor more may aught my steps divide

From that dear stream which flows to Clyde.

Credits

Written by Helen Maria Williams

Words by Helen Maria Williams. Historical text published in The Book of Scottish Song (1843); public domain. No claim to a modern recording or arrangement.

Source & text edition

The Book of Scottish Song (1843), edited by Alexander Whitelaw, “Evan Banks”

Every contribution in this 1843 anthology predates modern copyright terms by more than a century; any contributor died at least 130 years ago, so the text is in the public domain worldwide (life+70 terms expired no later than 2020).

How to read this historical text and its source

Read the source on Wikisource

View copyright evidence · Transcription terms (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Retrieved 2026-10-12. Line spacing and section labels are adapted for reading. The displayed text follows the linked edition. Editorial notes and abstract artwork are by 52lyrics.
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