Ae fond kiss, and then we sever;
Ae fareweel, alas, forever!
Deep in heart-wrung tears I ’ll pledge thee;
Warring sighs and groans I ’ll wage thee.
Who shall say that fortune grieves him,
While the star of hope she leaves him?
Me, nae cheerfu’ twinkle lights me;
Dark despair around benights me.
I ’ll ne’er blame my partial fancy...
O, My Luve ’s like a red, red rose
That ’s newly sprung in June:
O, my Luve ’s like the melodie
That ’s sweetly played in tune.
As fair art thou, my bonnie lass,
So deep in luve am I:
And I will luve thee still, my dear,
Till a’ the seas gang dry:
Till a’ the seas gang dry, my dear,
And the rocks melt wi’ the...
Of a’ the airts 1 the wind can blaw,
I dearly like the west;
For there the bonnie lassie lives,
The lassie I lo’e best.
There wild woods grow, and rivers row,
And monie a hill ’s between;
But day and night my fancy’s flight
Is ever wi’ my Jean.
I see her in the dewy flowers,
I see her sweet and fair;
I...
O, Saw ye bonnie Leslie
As she gaed o’er the border?
She ’s gane, like Alexander,
To spread her conquests farther.
To see her is to love her,
And love but her forever;
For nature made her what she is,
And ne’er made sic anither!
Thou art a queen, fair Leslie,
Thy subjects we, before thee;
Thou art...
Ye banks, and braes, and streams around
The castle o’ Montgomery,
Green be your woods, and fair your flowers,
Your waters never drumlie!
There Simmer first unfald her robes
And there she langest tarry!
For there I took the last fareweel
O’ my sweet Highland Mary.
How sweetly bloomed the gay green birk!
How rich...
[Written in September, 1789, on the anniversary of the day on which he heard of the death of his early love, Mary Campbell.]
THOU lingering star, with lessening ray,
That lov’st to greet the early morn,
Again thou usher’st in the day
My Mary from my soul was torn.
O Mary! dear departed shade!
Where is thy place of blissful rest?
...
“My son, these maxims make a rule
And lump them aye thegither:
The Rigid Righteous is a fool,
The Rigid Wise anither:
The cleanest corn that e’er was dight
May hae some pyles o’ caff in;
Sae ne’er a fellow-creature slight
For random fits o’ daffin.”
—SOLOMON, Ecclesiastes vii. 16.
O YE wha are sae guid yoursel...
Flow gently, sweet Afton, among thy green braes;
Flow gently, I ’ll sing thee a song in thy praise;
My Mary ’s asleep by thy murmuring stream,
Flow gently, sweet Afton, disturb not her dream.
Thou stock-dove whose echo resounds through the glen,
Ye wild whistling blackbirds in yon thorny den,
Thou green-crested lapwing, thy screaming forbear;...
On Turning One Down with the Plough in April, 1786
WEE, modest, crimson-tippèd flower,
Thou ’s met me in an evil hour,
For I maun crush amang the stoure
Thy slender stem;
To spare thee now is past my power,
Thou bonny gem.
Alas! it ’s no thy neebor sweet,
The bonnie lark, companion meet,
Bending thee ’...
On Seeing One on a Lady’s Bonnet at Church
HA! whare ye gaun, ye crawlin’ ferlie?
Your impudence protects you sairly:
I canna say but ye strunt rarely
Owre gauze an’ lace;
Though, faith! I fear ye dine but sparely
On sic a place.
Ye ugly, creepin’, blastit wonner,
Detested, shunned by saunt an’ sinner,
...
