Sprig of shilelah/I'll soon hae a wife o' my ain
I’LL SOON HAE A WIFE O‘ MY AIN.
FRAE Clyde to the banks of sweet Earn,
I've travell’d fu’ mony lang mile,
But thoughts o’ my dearest lass Annie,
The wearisome hours did beguile.
The happy, wae night that we parted,
She vow’d she would constant remain;
My heart-strings a’ dirl’d wi’ fondness!
I kiss, and I kiss’d her again.
‘Tis no cause her cheeks are like roses,
Nor yet for her dark rollin’ e’e,
Tis no for her sweet comely features.
These charms are naething to me.
The storms of life may soon blast them,
Or sickness make them fade away,
But virtue, when fix’d in the bosom,
Will flourish, and never decay.
Nae langer I’ll spend a’ my siller,
Nae langer I’ll now ly my lane;
Nae langer I’ll hunt'after hizzies,
I’ll soon ha'e a wife o’ my ain.
For mony wild foot I ha’e wander’d
And mony lang night spent in vain,
Wi’ drinkin’ and dancin’, and courtin’,
But I’ll soon hae a wife o’ my ain.
Her mither’s ay flytiu’, and roarin’,
" I red you tak tent o’ that chiel;
He’ll no be that canny to live wi’
He’ll ne’er be like douse Geordy Steel.
He's courted wi'o’er mony lasses;
To slight them he thinks it gude fun;
He’ll mak’ but a sober ha'f-marrow.
Ye’ll best rue before you be bound."
Tho' Geordy be laird of a house,
And brags o’ his kye and his pelf,
Tho’ warld’s gear I be right scant o',
A fig for’t as lang’s I’ve my health:
It ance I l were kippi'd wi’ Annie,
She’ll seldom ha’e cause to complain,
We’ll jog on through life ay right canny,
When I get a wife o' my ain.
But if that my Annie prove faithless,
And marry before I return,
I‘ll no like a cuif greet about her,
Not yet for ae minute will mourn,
Awa‘ straight to some ither beauty,
Without loss of time I will hie,
And shew to the lasses I‘m careless,
Unless they're as willin' as I.