The Book of Scottish Song/The Posie
The Posie.
[Written by Burns for Johnson's Museum, to a tune taken down from Mrs. Burns's voice. "It appears evident to me," says the poet, "that Oswald composed his 'Roslin Castle' on the modulation of this air.—In the second part of Oswald's, in the three first bars, he has either hit on a wonderful similarity to, or else he has entirely borrowed the three first bars of the old air, and the close of both tunes is almost exactly the same. The old verses to which it was sung, when I took down the notes from a country girl's voice,"—(the country girl, as appears from a letter to Thomson, was his own wife,)—"had no great merit.—The following is a specimen:
'There was a pretty May (anglice, maid,) and a milkin she went;
Wi' her red rosy cheeks, and her coal-black hair;
And she has met a young man a comin' o'er the bent,
With a double and adieu to thee, fair May.
O where are ye goin', my ain pretty May,
Wi' thy red rosy cheeks, and thy coal-black hair?
Unto the yowes a milkin', kind sir, she says,
With a double and adieu to thee, fair May.
What if I gang alang wi' thee, my ain pretty May,
Wi' thy red rosy cheeks, and thy coal-black hair;
Wad I be aught the worse o' that, kind sir, she says,
With a double and adieu to thee, fair May,' &c. &c."
Burns was quite right as to the resemblance of the air of "Roslin Castle" to that of "The Posie," but he was mistaken in thinking that Oswald composed the former tune. It is older than Oswald's day, and was originally called "The House of Glamis." This we have already mentioned in the note to the song of "Roslin Castle."]
Oh, love will venture in where it daurna weel be seen;
Oh, love will venture in where wisdom ance has been;
But I will doun yon river rove, amang the woods sae green,
And a' to pou a posie to my ain dear May.
The primrose I will pou, the firstlin' o' the year;
And I will pou the pink, the emblem o' my dear;
For she's the pink o' womankind, and blooms without a peer:
And a' to be a posie to my ain dear May.
I'll pou the buddin' rose, when Phœbus peeps in view,
For it's like a baumy kiss o' her sweet bonnie mou;
The hyacinth's for constancy, wi' its unchanging blue:
And a' to be a posie to my ain dear May.
The lily it is pure, and the lily it is fair,
And in her lovely bosom I'll place the lily there;
The daisy's for simplicity, of unaffected air:
And a' to be a posie to my ain dear May.
The hawthorn I will pou, wi' its locks o' siller grey,
Where, like an aged man, it stands at break o' day;
But the songster's nest within the bush I winna take away:
And a' to be a posie to my ain dear May.
The woodbine I will pou when the e'enin' star is near,
And the diamond-draps o' dew shall be her een sae clear;
The violet's for modesty, which weel she fa's to wear:
And a' to be a posie to my ain dear May.
I'll tie the posie round wi' the eilken band of luve,
And I'll place it in her breast, and I'll swear by a' above,
That to the latest breath o' life the band shall ne'er remove:
And this will be a posie to my ain dear May.