Garvald poem by Matt Freeland

In May 1941, this nostalgic poem about the village of Garvald, in East Lothian, appeared in the East Lothian Courier. It is attributed to a Matt Freeland.

'Oh would I were by Garvald where Papana's lilting stream
Adown the hillside gurgles to the sea.
Where the zephyrs from the moorland bring a fragrance as they breathe
Their whisperings soft to each awakening tree.

Could I but take yon quiet way that winds by high Traprain
Around whose crest the circling Curlews cry
Till above the gentle hill-brow little red tiled houses peep
From out the dale where clustering snug they lie.

And oh! To tread the woodland path beside the waters clear
Where silver birch like mirrored naiads bend
To ivy covered ruin and the greensward at its feet
When the daffodils their gold profusion spread.

Oh! Would I were by Garvald now where Spring her mantle spreads
And hedgerows ope from sleep in every lane
Oh! To see the old world hamlet shyly hiding in the hills
And hear Papana's lilting once again.'

Matt Freeland, 1941.

The poem features in Irene Anderson’s ‘Garvald – The History of an East Lothian Parish’, 1991. The village of Garvald sits on the ‘lilting stream’ or burn of the Papana Water.