The Book of Scottish Song/Bonnie Ann

Bonnie Ann.

[From "Odes and Sonnets, with other Poems, Scotch as well as English. By the Rev. C. Lessingham Smith, M.A. Rector of Little Caufield, Essex."]

I doutna whiles but I could wale
A lass wi' mair o' gowd and lan';
But no a lass in a' the vale
I lo'e sae weel as bonnie Ann.

Her een sae sparklin' and sae blue,
Aye speak o' mirth and love to me;
An' then her sweet wee rosy mou'—
Just for ae kiss what wad I gi'e?

Her daddie 's aye apreachin' o't
That she's ower young as yet, ye ken;
But guidness guide us! that 's a faut
That ilka day an' hour maun men'.

She's seen the flowers o' saxteen springs,
Hersel' the sweetest flower o' a'!
An' a' thing on her guidin' hings
In barn and byre, in house and ha'.

O' saxty nowt she's aye the rule;
O' sheep and kye twa hunder fu',
Then whar, I'se like to ken, the fule
Wad threip she's no a woman nou?

But I maun bide, as weil's I may,
To please her daddie, honest man!
Though sair I lang for that blythe day
When I'm to wed my bonnie Ann.

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