Words: Robert Burns
Music: Laila Sumpton arr. Owen Shiers

A Robert Burns poem set to a new melody by our own Laila Sumpton. We were honoured to sing this at the birthplace of William Wilberforce during Hull’s City of Culture year in 2017.

It was in sweet Senegal that my foes did me enthral,
For the lands of Virginia, -ginia, O.
Torn from that lovely shore, and must never see it more, 
And alas! I am weary, weary O,
And alas! I am weary, weary O.

All on that charming coast is no bitter snow and frost,
Like the lands of Virginia, -ginia, O:
There streams for ever flow, and there flowers for ever blow,
And alas! I am weary, weary O,
And alas! I am weary, weary O.

The burden I must bear, while the cruel scourge I fear,
In the lands of Virginia,-ginia, O;
And I think on friends most dear, with the bitter, bitter tear,
And alas! I am weary, weary O,
And alas! I am weary, weary O.