"Bonnie Charlie", commonly known as "Will ye no come back again?", is a Scots

Scots language

Scots is the Germanic language variety spoken in Lowland Scotland and parts of Ulster . It is sometimes called Lowland Scots to distinguish it from Scottish Gaelic, the Celtic language variety spoken in most of the western Highlands and in the Hebrides.Since there are no universally accepted...

 poem by Carolina Oliphant (Lady Nairne)

Carolina, Baroness Nairne

Carolina Nairne, née Oliphant, Lady Nairne was a Scottish songwriter and song collector.-Life:Carolina Oliphant was born in the auld hoose of Gask, Perthshire. She was descended from Clan Oliphant, an old family which had settled in Perthshire in the 13th century, and could boast of kinship with...

 which celebrates Jacobitism

Jacobitism

Jacobitism was the political movement in Britain dedicated to the restoration of the Stuart kings to the thrones of England, Scotland, later the Kingdom of Great Britain, and the Kingdom of Ireland...

, set to a traditional Scottish folk tune. As in several of the author's poems (she was known for "saccharine imitations of Jacobite song") its theme is the aftermath of the Jacobite Rising of 1745

Jacobite Rising of 1745

The Jacobite rising of 1745, often referred to as "The 'Forty-Five," was the attempt by Charles Edward Stuart to regain the British throne for the exiled House of Stuart. The rising occurred during the War of the Austrian Succession when most of the British Army was on the European continent...

, which ended at the Battle of Culloden

Battle of Culloden

The Battle of Culloden was the final confrontation of the 1745 Jacobite Rising. Taking place on 16 April 1746, the battle pitted the Jacobite forces of Charles Edward Stuart against an army commanded by William Augustus, Duke of Cumberland, loyal to the British government...

.

Theme

The "Bonnie Charlie" of the song is "Bonnie Prince Charlie"

Charles Edward Stuart

Prince Charles Edward Louis John Casimir Sylvester Severino Maria Stuart commonly known as Bonnie Prince Charlie or The Young Pretender was the second Jacobite pretender to the thrones of Great Britain , and Ireland...

 or the Young Pretender, the last serious Stuart claimant to the British throne. After Culloden, he escaped to the continent with the help of Flora MacDonald. The song expresses joy in Bonnie Charlie's escape from capture and possible execution, and celebrates the loyalty of his followers and their longing for his return.

Lady Nairne came from a Jacobite family, and Prince Charles had stopped to dine at Nairne House on 4 September 1745, during the march to Edinburgh

Edinburgh

Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...

. Her father was exiled the year after, but the family "hoarded" a number of objects "supposedly given to him by Prince Charles."

Use

The song has become a "time honored Scottish farewell." With the rise of the Scottish nationalist movement

Scottish independence

Scottish independence is a political ambition of political parties, advocacy groups and individuals for Scotland to secede from the United Kingdom and become an independent sovereign state, separate from England, Wales and Northern Ireland....

 it has become common to sing several verses of the song, especially the strongly "Jacobite" ones, instead of the traditional "first verse and chorus".

In modern times, the song has acquired a more general use and was sung by Canadians, for instance, in honor of George VI in 1939; by Australians as a farewell to then-Princess Elisabeth in 1946; and by Elizabeth II's "Scottish subjects" in 1953.

Lyrics

Different selections of the lyrics exist--an edition of Lady Nairne's songs from 1869 cites five stanzas (alternating with the "Will ye no' come back again" chorus), of which the middle three are explicitly Jacobite. Some cite only two (the first and the last) stanzas.

Bonnie Charlie's noo awa

Safely o'er the friendly main;

He'rts will a'most break in twa

Should he no' come back again.

Chorus

Will ye no' come back again?

Will ye no' come back again?

Better lo'ed ye canna be

Will ye no' come back again?

They trusted in your Hieland men

They trusted you, dear Charlie;

They kent you hiding in the glen,

Your cleadin' was but barely.

English bribes were a' in vain

An' e'en tho puirer we may be

Siller canna buy the heart

That beats aye for thine and thee.

We watch'd thee in the gloamin' hour

We watch'd thee in the mornin' grey

Tho' thirty thousand pound they'd gi'e

Oh, there is nane that wad betray.

Sweet's the laverock

Lark

Larks are passerine birds of the family Alaudidae. All species occur in the Old World, and in northern and eastern Australia; only one, the Shore Lark, has spread to North America, where it is called the Horned Lark...

's note and lang,

Liftin' wildly up the glen,

But aye to me he sings ane sang,

Will ye no come back again?

In a 1901 anthology by James Welldon, two different stanzas are found, and the poem is credited to "Anonymous."