O, Dinna ask me gin I lo’e ye:
Troth, I daurna tell!
Dinna ask me gin I lo’e ye,—
Ask it o’ yoursel’.
O, dinna look sae sair at me,
For weel ye ken me true;
O, gin ye look sae sair at me,
I daurna look at you.
When ye gang to yon braw braw town,
And bonnier lassies see,
O, dinna, Jamie, look at them,...
From “The Princess”
O SWALLOW, Swallow, flying, flying South,
Fly to her, and fall upon her gilded eaves,
And tell her, tell her what I tell to thee.
O tell her, Swallow, thou that knowest each,
That bright and fierce and fickle is the South,
And dark and true and tender is the North.
O Swallow, Swallow, if I could follow, and...
From “The Miller’s Daughter”
IT is the miller’s daughter,
And she is grown so dear, so dear,
That I would be the jewel
That trembles at her ear:
For, hid in ringlets day and night,
I ’d touch her neck so warm and white.
And I would be the girdle
About her dainty, dainty waist,
And her heart would beat against me...
If doughty deeds my lady please,
Right soon I ’ll mount my steed,
And strong his arm and fast his seat
That bears frae me the meed.
I ’ll wear thy colors in my cap,
Thy picture at my heart,
And he that bends not to thine eye
Shall rue it to his smart!
Then tell me how to woo thee, Love;
O, tell me how to...
1. AMONG thy fancies tell me this:
What is the thing we call a kiss?
2. I shall resolve ye what it is:
It is a creature born and bred
Between the lips all cherry red,
By love and warm desires fed;
Chor. And makes more soft the bridal bed.
It is an active flame, that flies
First to the babies of the eyes,...
A Rose of fire shut in a veil of snow,
An April gleam athwart a misted sky:
A jewel—a soul! gaze deep if thou wouldst know
The flame-wrought spell of its pale witchery;
And now each tremulous beauty lies revealed,
And now the drifted snow doth beauty shield.
So my shy love, aneath her kerchief white,
Holdeth the glamour of the...
From “Alexander and Campaspe,” Act III. Sc. 5.
CUPID and my Campaspe played
At cards for kisses,—Cupid paid;
He stakes his quiver, bow and arrows,
His mother’s doves, and team of sparrows,—
Loses them too; then down he throws
The coral of his lip, the rose
Growing on ’s cheek (but none knows how);
With these the crystal of his...
My love and I for kisses played:
She would keep stakes—I was content;
But when I won, she would be paid;
This made me ask her what she meant.
“Pray since I see,” quoth she, “your wrangling vein,
Take your own kisses; give me mine again.”
The Fountains mingle with the river,
And the rivers with the ocean;
The winds of heaven mix forever,
With a sweet emotion;
Nothing in the world is single;
All things by a law divine
In one another’s being mingle:—
Why not I with thine?
See! the mountains kiss high heaven,
And the waves clasp one another;...
Some say that kissing ’s a sin;
But I think it ’s nane ava,
For kissing has wonn’d in this warld
Since ever that there was twa.
O, if it wasna lawfu’
Lawyers wadna allow it;
If it wasna holy,
Ministers wadna do it.
If it wasna modest,
Maidens wadna tak’ it;
If it wasna plenty,
Puir folk...
