The Flowers of the Forest (1825)/The Flowers of the Forest
THE FLOWERS OF THE FOREST.
I've seen the smiling
Of Fortune beguiling,
I’ve felt all its favours, and found its decay
Sweet was its blessing,
Kind its caressing,
But now ’tis fled,—fled far away.
I’ve seen the forest
Adorned the foremost,
With flowers of the fairest, most pleasant
and gay;
See bonny was their blooming,
Their scent the air perfuming;
But now they are wither’d and weeded
away.
I’ve seen the morning,
With gold the hills adorning,
And loud tempest storming before the
mid-day.
I’ve seen Tweed’s silver streams
Shining in the sunny beams,
Grow drumly and dark as they row’d on
their way.
O fickle Fortune!
Why this cruel sporting?
O why still perplex us, poor sons of a day?
Nae mair your smiles can cheer me,
Nae mair your frowns can fear me,
For the flowers of the forest are wither’d
away.