The Book of Scottish Song/Fair Eliza

Fair Eliza.

[Written by Burns for Johnson's Museum, where it appears set to two different Gaelic airs. "Robina," not "Eliza," was the real name of the heroine.]

Turn again, thou fair Eliza!
Ae kind blink before we part,
Rue on thy despairing lover!
Canst thou break his faithfu' heart?
Turn again, thou fair Eliza!
If to love thy heart denies,
For pity, hide the cruel sentence
Under friendship's kind disguise!

Thee, dear maid, ha'e I offended?
The offence is loving thee:
Canst thou wreck his peace for ever,
Wha for thine wad gladly die?
While the life beats in my bosom,
Thou Shalt mix in ilka thoe:
Turn again, thou lovely maiden,
Ae sweet smile on me bestow.

Not the bee upon the blossom,
In the pride of sunny noon;
Not the little sporting fairy,
All beneath the simmer moon;
Not the poet in the moment
Fancy lightens in his e'e,
Kens the pleasure, feels the rapture,
That thy presence gi'es to me.

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