Wi' lightsome heart I pu'd a rose, But ah! he left the thorn wi' me. [The lady to whose lips these very beautiful lines are given, was a Miss Kennedy of Dalgarrock, a young and beautiful girl that fell a victim to her heartless seducer, M'Douall of Logan. I subjoin the earliest version of this favourite lyric. Ye flowery banks o' bonnie Doon, How can ye bloom sae fair: And I sae fu' o' care! Thou'll break my heart, thou bonnie bird, That sings upon the bough; Thou minds me o' the happy days When my fause luve was true. Thou'll break my heart, thou bonnie bird, That sings beside thy mate; For sae I sat, and sae I sang, Aft hae I rov'd by bonnie Doon, Wi' lightsome heart I pu'd a rose, And my fause lover staw the rose, But left the thorn wi' me.] GREEN GROW THE RASHES, O. ROBERT BURNS. CHORUS. Green grow the rashes, O! There's nought but care on ev'ry han', The warly race may riches chase, But gie me a canny hour at e'en, For you sae douce, ye sneer at this, Auld Nature swears, the lovely dears The sweetest hours that e'er I spend, [Upon some old fragments, now frequently printed, Burns founded this very charming and popular song. The sentiment of the last verse though not new, is as Mr. Cun. ningham says, "the richest incense any poet ever offered at the shrine of beauty."] THE BIRKS OF ABERFELDY. ROBERT BURNS. CHORUS. Bonnie lassie, will ye go, To the birks of Aberfeldy ? Now simmer blinks on flowery braes, The little birdies blithely sing, While o'er their heads the hazels hing, In the birks of Aberfeldy. The braes ascend, like lofty wa's, The hoary cliffs are crown'd wi' flowers, Let Fortune's gifts at random flee, Bonnie lassie, will ye go, Will ye go, will ye go; To the birks of Aberfeldy? ["I composed these stanzas standing under the falls of Aberfeldy, at, or near, Moness," (in Perthshire).-BURNS. The chorus of the song is old.] THE DAY RETURNS. ROBERT BURNS. The day returns, my bosom burns, And crosses o'er the sultry line; Than kingly robes, than crowns and globes, While day and night can bring delight, Comes in between to make us part, It breaks my bliss-it breaks my heart. [The seventh of November was the anniversary of the marriage of Mr. and Mrs. Riddell, of Friars-Carse; and these verses were com. posed in compliment to the day. "One of the most tolerable things I have done in the way of song, is two stanzas I made to an air for a musical gentleman of my acquaintance, composed for the anniversary of his wedding day."-BURNS.] |