Page:The Book of Scottish Song.djvu/414

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
396
SCOTTISH SONGS.

Nor to me will their beauties e'er pleasure impart;
Red is the rose and bonnie, O:
For sunk is my spirits, and broken my heart;
Soon I'll meet ne'er to part frae my Johnnie, O.




When we two parted.

[Air, "When Januar' winds were blawing."]

When we two parted, on thy cheek
The young moon-beam fell soft and meek,
And the flower was budding on the lea,
When last I breathed "Farewell to thee."

But thou wert number'd with the dead,
Before that moon had wax'd and fled;
And ere the flower had lost its bloom,
The midnight dews were on thy tomb.

I saw thee not in that last hour
Which gave thee to the victor's power,
Nor heard the last recorded sigh
That 'scaped thee in thine agony.

When thou wert borne upon thy bier,
I was not with the mourners near!
Where tears and dust were strew'd o'er thee.
Alas that was no place for me!

The warmest heart that ever beat
Lies cold beneath the winding-sheet!
The fairest form earth ever knew,
Is vanish'd like the morning dew.




The Ingle Side.

[Hugh Ainslie.]

It's rare to see the morning bleeze
Like a bonfire frae the sea;
It's fair to see the burnie kiss
The lip o' the flow'ry lea;
An' fine it is in the green hill side,
When hums the hinny bee;
But rarer, fairer, finer far,
Is the ingle side to me.

Glens may be gilt wi' gowans rare,
The birds may fill the tree;
And haughs ha'e a' the scented ware
That simmer's growth can gi'e;
But the canty hearth where cronies meet,
An' the darling o' our e'e,
That mak's to us a warld complete;
O the ingle side's for me.




The Bonnie Rowan Bush.

[Robert Nicoll.]

The bonnie rowan bush
In yon lane glen—
Where the burnie clear doth gush
In yon lane glen;
My head is white and auld,
An' my bluid is thin an cauld,—
But I lo'e the bonnie rowan bush
In yon lane glen.

My Jeanie first I met
In yon lane glen—
When the grass wi' dew was wet
In yon lane glen;
The moon was shinin' sweet,
An' our hearts wi' love did beat,—
By the bonnie, bonnie rowan bush
In yon lane glen.

Oh! she promised to be mine
In yon lane glen;
Her heart she did resign
In yon lane glen:
An' monie a happy day
Bid o'er us pass away,
Beside the bonnie rowan bush
In yon lane glen.

Sax bonnie bairns had we
In yon lane glen—
Lads an' lasses young an' spree
In yon lane glen;
An' a blither family
Than ours there cou'dna be,
Beside the bonnie rowan bush
In yon lane glen.