Page:The Hundred Best Poems (lyrical) in the English language - second series.djvu/57

ROBERT BURNS.

IV.

How pleasant thy banks and green vallies below,

Where wild in the woodlands the primroses blow!
There oft, as mild Ev'ning weeps over the lea,
The sweet-scented birk shades my Mary and me.

V.

Thy crystal stream, Afton, how lovely it glides,

And winds by the cot where my Mary resides!
How wanton thy waters her snowy feet lave,
As, gathering sweet flowerets, she stems thy clear wave!

VI.

Flow gently, sweet Afton, among thy green braes!

Flow gently, sweet river, the theme of my lays!
My Mary's asleep by thy murmuring stream—
Flow gently, sweet Afton, disturb not her dream!

I.

OUT over the Forth, I look to the north—

But what is the north, and its Highlands to me ?
The south nor the east gie ease to my breast,
The far foreign land or the wide rolling sea!

II.

But I look to the west, when I gae to rest,

That happy my dreams and my slumbers may be;
For far in the west lives he I loe best,
The man that is dear to my babie and me.

Henderson and Henley's Text.

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