The Book of Scottish Song/I gaed a waefu' gate

by Robert Burns

For other versions of this work, see I Gaed a Waefu' Gate Yestreen.

I gaed a waefu' gate.

[Written by Burns in 1789 for the Museum. The subject of the song was a daughter of the Rev. Mr. Jeffrey of Lochmaben, now Mrs. Renwick of New York. The air was composed by Robert Riddle of Glenriddle, Esq., and called "The blue-eyed lassie."]

I gaed a waefu' gate yestreen,
A gate I fear I'll dearly rue;
I gat my death frae twa sweet een,
Twa lovely een o' bonnie blue.
'Twas not her golden ringlets bright,
Her lips like roses wet wi' dew,
Her heaving bosom, lily-white—
It was her een sae bonnie blue.

She talk'd, she smiled, my heart she wiled,
She charm'd my soul I wist na how,
But aye the stound, the deadly wound,
Cam' frae her een sae bonnie blue.
But, spare to speak, and spare to speed,
She'll aiblins listen to my vow:
Should she refuse, I'll lay me dead
To her twa een sae bonnie blue.

---