The Book of Scottish Song/A Rose-bud

A Rose-bud.

[Written by Burns in 1787, in compliment to the daughter of his friend William Cruikshank, one of the masters of the High School, Edinburgh. Miss Cruikshank was the "very young lady" to whom the poet addressed the lines, beginning,

"Beauteous rose-bud, young and gay."

She was afterwards married to a Mr. Henderson in Jedburgh. The tune to the present song was composed by "Davie, a brither poet," that is, David Siller, who died at Irvine in 1830. It is called "The Rose-bud."]

A rose-bud by my early walk,
Adown a corn-enclosed hawk,
Sae gently bent its thorny stalk,
All on a dewy morning.
Ere twice the shades o' dawn are fled,
In a' its crimson glory spread
And drooping rich the dewy head,
It scents the early morning.

Within the bush, her covert nest
A little linnet fondly prest,
The dew sat chilly on her breast
Sae early in the morning.
She soon shall see her tender brood,
The pride, the pleasure o' the wood,
Amang the fresh green leaves bedew'd,
Awake the early morning.

So thou, dear bird, young Jeanny fair!
On trembling string, or vocal air,
Shall sweetly pay the tender care
That tends thy early morning.
So thou, sweet rose-bud, young and gay,
Shalt beauteous blaze upon the day,
And bless the parent's evening ray
That watch'd thy early morning.

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