The Book of Scottish Song/Blythe ha'e I been

Blythe ha'e I been.

[Tune, "Liggeram Cosh."—"'Blythe ha'e I been on yon hill,' is one of the finest songs I ever made in my life; and besides, it is composed on a young lady positively the most beautiful, lovely, woman in the world."—Burns. The lady in question was Miss Lesley Baillie, doubtless a very pretty girl; but the Poet was surely "in a creel" when he pronounced this to be one of the finest songs he ever made.]

Blythe ha'e I been on yon hill,
As the lambs before me;
Careless ilka thought and free,
As the breeze flew o'er me:
Now nae longer sport and play
Mirth or sang can please me,
Lesley is sae fair and coy.
Care and anguish seize me.

Heavy, heavy, is the task,
Hopeless love declaring:
Trembling, I dow nocht but glow'r,
Sighing, dimnb, despairing!
If she winna ease the thraws.
In my bosom swelling;
Underneath the grass-green sod,
Soon maun be my dwelling.

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