Thomas Campbell, Lord Ullin's Daughter

Literature for Life Volume 1
Section 3
In More Detail - Learning about Petry - Ballad
In More Detail
Thomas Campbell
Lord Ullin’s Daughter
Knowledge
base
The ballad you are going to read here is called Lord Ullin’s Daughter. It was first drafted
by a man called Thomas Campbell in 1795 after he visited the island of Mull
in Argyllshire, Scotland.
1. Read the summary of the story. Is it a sad or a happy tale
Summary
A young couple are running away to marry. The girl’s father, Lord Ullin, is in hot
pursuit on horseback, accompanied by other horsemen. Despite the terrible
weather, the young couple intend to escape by boat over Lochgyle. The young man
(who is referred to as “chief of Ulva’s isle”) asks a boatman to take them across
the loch. The boatman agrees to go, against his better judgement.
As the boat leaves the shore in a terrible storm, Lord Ullin arrives, only to see
the boat sink and his daughter and her lover die by drowning. Lord Ullin calls out
that he will forgive them if they return to shore but it is already too late.
First reading
MP3 22
2. Now listen to and read the ballad.
a. Distinguish the direct speech from the narration.
b. For the direct speech, decide who is speaking in each case.
T 27
Thomas
Campbell
Lord Ullin’s
Daughter
(1795,
pub. 1809)
5
A chieftain 1 , to the Highlands bound 2 ,
Cries, “Boatman, do not tarry 3 !
And I’ll give thee a silver pound,
To row us o’er the ferry.”
“Now who be ye 4 , would cross Lochgyle,
This dark and stormy water”
“O, I’m the chief of Ulva’s isle,
And this Lord Ullin’s daughter.
1. chieftain: the head of a clan
in Scotland.
2. to … bound: going in the
direction of (viaggiando
verso).
3. do not tarry: hurry up
(affrettati).
4. who be ye: old Scottish for
‘who are you’.
Section 3 In More Detail Learning about Poetry (ballad)
Thomas Campbell, Lord Ullin’s Daughter 1

10
15
“And fast before her father’s men
Three days we’ve fled 5 together,
For should he find us in the glen 6 ,
My blood would stain the heather 7 .
“His horsemen hard behind us ride;
Should they our steps discover,
Then who will cheer my bonny bride 8
When they have slain 9 her lover”
In More Detail
20
Out spoke the hardy Highland wight 10 ,
“I’ll go, my chief — I’m ready;
It is not for your silver bright,
But for your winsome 11 lady:
25
“And by my word! the bonny bird
In danger shall not tarry;
So though the waves are raging white,
I’ll row you o’er the ferry.”
By this the storm grew loud apace,
The water-wraith was shrieking 12 ;
And in the scowl 13 of heaven each face
Grew dark as they were speaking.
“Boatman, do not tarry!”, illustration for
Lord Ullin’s Daughter by Herbert N. Rudeen
(in Journeys Through Bookland, Vol. 6, by
Charles H. Sylvester, Chicago, Bellows-Reeve
Company Publishers, 1922).
30
35
40
But still as wilder blew the wind,
And as the night grew drearer 14 ,
Adown the glen rode armed men,
Their trampling sounded nearer.
“O haste thee 15 , haste!” the lady cries,
“Though tempests round us gather;
I’ll meet the raging of the skies,
But not an angry father.”
The boat had left a stormy land,
A stormy sea before her, —
When, O! too strong for human hand,
The tempest gather’d o’er her 16 .
And still they row’d 17 amidst the roar
Of waters fast prevailing:
Lord Ullin reach’d that fatal shore,
His wrath was changed to wailing 18 .
5. fled: escaped (siamo
fuggiti).
6. glen: Scottish for ‘valley’.
7. heather: a moorland plant
(erica).
8. bonny bride: beautiful wife
to be (bella sposa).
9. slain: killed (ucciso).
10. the hardy Highland wight:
here it refers to the
boatman (il tipo robusto
delle Highlands).
11. winsome: beautiful (bella).
12. The water-wraith was
shrieking: the demon of
the loch was screaming
(urlava il mostro delle
acque).
13. scowl: dark, angry face (il
volto scuro e arrabbiato).
14. drearer: darker (più
scura).
15. haste thee: hurry up
(affrettati).
16. gather’d o’er her: met
above her (si accumulò
sopra la barca).
17. row’d: used the oars
(remavano).
18. His wrath was changed to
wailing: his anger became
crying (la sua rabbia
diventò un lamento).
Section 3 In More Detail Learning about Poetry (ballad)
Thomas Campbell, Lord Ullin’s Daughter 2

45
50
For sore dismay’d 19 through storm and shade,
His child he did discover: —
One lovely hand she stretch’d for aid,
And one was round her lover.
“Come back! come back!” he cried in grief 20 ,
“Across this stormy water:
And I’ll forgive your Highland chief,
My daughter! — O my daughter!
In More Detail
55
’Twas vain 21 : the loud waves lash’d 22 the shore,
Return or aid preventing;
The waters wild went o’er his child,
And he was left lamenting.
19. sore dismay’d: very
upset
(profondamente
sconvolto).
20. grief: sadness and
pain (dolore).
21. ’Twas vain: it was
of no use (non
serviva a nulla).
22. lash’d: beat
(colpivano).
In more detail
Content
Form
and language
3. Where in the ballad does it say the following Find the line references and answer
the additional question.
a. (lines ________ ) The young chief offers the boatman money. How much exactly
b. (lines ________ ) The lovers have been on the run for days. How many days exactly
c. (lines ________ ) Lord Ullin will take his revenge if he catches them. How will he take
his revenge
d. (lines ________ ) The boatman agrees to go but not for the money. What is the reason
why the boatman agrees
e. (lines ________ ) When they hear the sound of approaching horsemen, it is the girl
who insists that they leave immediately. What does she say she
cannot face
f. (lines ________ ) When she realises the boat is going to sink, the girl appeals to her
father. What does she say or do exactly
4. Describe the form of the poem by making notes below:
a. no. of stanzas: __________________________________________________________________________
b. no. of lines per stanza: __________________________________________________________________________
c. line length: __________________________________________________________________________
d. end-stopping: __________________________________________________________________________
5. Focus on language.
Which of these words and phrases would you use to describe the language of the poem
elaborate
lyrical
full of exclamations
narrative
vague
ornate
simple
graphic
dramatic
Section 3 In More Detail Learning about Poetry (ballad)
Thomas Campbell, Lord Ullin’s Daughter 3

Sound features
6. Work out the poem’s rhyme scheme.
7. Look at the main stresses in stanza 1.
a. How many stresses are there in each line
´ ´ ´ ´
A chieftain, to the Highlands bound,
´ ´ ´
Cries, “Boatman, do not tarry!
´ ´ ´ ´
And I’ll give thee a silver pound
´ ´ ´
To row us o’er the ferry!” —
b. Which of these statements is true The poem alternates …
a. … lines of pentameter and tetrameter.
b. … lines of tetrameter and trimeter.
c. … lines of trimeter and dimeter.
c. Can you identify the same stress pattern in other stanzas of the poem
In More Detail
Type
repetition of phrases
anaphor
alliteration
consonance
assonance
Standard forms
8. Repetition is an important feature of this poem.
a. Find an example of each type of repetition.
Examples
b. What is the effect of the repetition Tick the statements you agree with.
a. It makes the poem more musical.
b. It makes the words easier to remember.
c. It highlights important words and phrases.
d. It makes the poem boring and predictable.
9. Here is a checklist of the main features of the standard form known as the
traditional or folk ballad. Which features can you link to the ballad Lord Ullin’s Daughter
a. The authors of ballads are anonymous (usually minstrels and troubadours) and their
narrators are impersonal.
b. They were handed down orally and changed as they passed from person to person and
from country to country. They were generally not written down until the 18th century.
c. Ballads are meant for performance, with or without musical accompaniment, and so
they contain many sound features, especially repetition, which make them musical
and memorable.
d. A key feature of ballads is their simplicity. The storyline is simple, often tragic, and
focuses on action. There are no descriptive passages. The characters are
straightforward and are not psychologically complex. The language is lexically and
syntactically simple and contains stock phrases or formulae and codes which
audiences immediately recognise.
e. The traditional ballad stanza is a quatrain and usually alternates lines of tetrameter
and trimeter (4-3-4-3 stress pattern). Different rhyme schemes are present but the
most common are abab and abcb.
f. Predominant themes of ballad stories are tragic ones of love, death, revenge,
betrayal, conflict.
Section 3 In More Detail Learning about Poetry (ballad)
Thomas Campbell, Lord Ullin’s Daughter 4

BIOGRAPHY IN BRIEF
Read the biography and find out how the text and the author’s life are linked.
In More Detail
Campbell, Thomas (1777-1844)
Thomas Campbell was born in Glasgow, Scotland in
1777. He was educated at Glasgow High School and the
University of Glasgow where he won prizes for classics
and for poetry. During the holidays he worked as a tutor
in the western Highlands and his poem Glenara and the
ballad of Lord Ullin’s Daughter were both written after a
visit to Mull at that time. He became famous for his poem
The Pleasures of Hope which dealt with popular issues
of the time such as the French Revolution, the partition
of Poland and slavery. He travelled in Germany
before returning to Scotland and then settling in
London. He continued writing and travelling
and was then elected Lord Rector of
Glasgow University in 1826. His family life
suffered a series of sad events —
Campbell’s wife died in 1828, one of his
two sons died and the other became
insane. Campbell’s health suffered, too,
and he withdrew from public life.
He died in 1844.
Scottish School, Portrait of Thomas Campbell, 1815, engraving
(Private Collection).
Section 3 In More Detail Learning about Poetry (ballad)
Thomas Campbell, Lord Ullin’s Daughter 5

SAY IT RIGHT
Lord Ullin’s Daughter
NOTEBOOK
Fill in the gaps in the texts by using the words provided.
In More Detail
Lord Ullin’s Daughter is a literary
ballad, that is to say it is part of the
couple
forgive
body of ballads that were not of the graphic
Isle of Mull
oral tradition, but which were (1)
killed
down in the 18th and 19th centuries.
lamenting
Its author is known to be Thomas
Campbell and it was inspired by a trip
loch
love
Campbell made to the (2) in quatrains
1795. The ballad was then revised and repetition
sink
finally published in 1809.
storm
Its tragic story tells of a young (3)
three
who are running away to marry in the
Highlands. The girl’s father, Lord Ullin,
trimeter
written
has been in pursuit of them for
(4) days. The couple are sure that,
if they are caught, the young chieftan will be
(5) by the Lord and his men. Despite the
terrible weather, the young couple ask a boatman
to take them across the (6) . The boatman
agrees to go, against his better judgement.
As the boat leaves the shore in a terrible (7) ,
Lord Ullin arrives, only to see the boat
his daughter and her lover die by drowning.
Lord Ullin calls out that he will
them
and
if they return to shore but it is already too late.
The poem has many typical aspects of the
traditional ballad. It is in
alternating lines of tetrameter and
with
and
an abab rhyme scheme. It is regular and musical,
the musicality being reinforced by (12) .
Its language makes use of both narration and
dialogue, it is simple,
and dramatic and
makes frequent use of exclamations to add to its
drama. The story, which deals with the theme of
(14)
(13)
(10)
and death, has a very tragic ending in which
we see the repentant father
of his beloved daughter.
(15)
(9)
(11)
(8)
the loss
Section 3 In More Detail Learning about Poetry (ballad)
Thomas Campbell, Lord Ullin’s Daughter 6