The Book of Scottish Song/The Bonnie Bride

The Bonnie Bride.

Lichtly the bonnie bride came dune,
Linking o'er the lea,
Lichtly as the thissel doune
Bobs i' the waivey sea.

She liltit as she passed the knau,
Adune the briery dell,
A lilt—'twas like the melody
That fairy minstrels swell.

"O, am not I the blythest May,
E'er drank heuen's breezy tide?
And weel may she be proud and gay,
That is young Willie's bride!

"For rosy is his douney cheile,
And fair his dimpled chin,
And baumey is the scented breath,
His tempting lips within."

Thus sweetly sang the bonnie bride,
As through the yellow broom
She bounded, by the greinwood schaw,
To meit her ain bridegroom.

And aye atween the lilts sae sweite,
Her pure young bosom swelled,
Ane form sae fair—ane eye sae brichte—
Hath mortal neuer beheld.

And the bridegroom met his bonnie bride
Upon the lily lea,
Where sweitly moans the forest waives
In mournfu' melody.

The breize o' heuen in plaintive play
Sang o'er the mountayne's breast,
Waiving the leavey canopy
Abune their cuche of rest.

He kissit the hinny frae her lip,
The dew drap frae her e e;—
May ilka true and leafu' knight
Pruve sic felicity!

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