The Garb of Old Gaul/Auld Robin Gray
AULD ROBIN GRAY.
The summer it was smiling, all nature round was gay,While Jenny was attending on auld Robin Gray;For he was sick at heart, and had nae friend beside, But only me, poor Jenny, who newly was his bride.
Ah! Jenny, I shall die, he cried, as sure as I had birth,Then see my poor old bones, I pray, laid into the earth.And be a widow for my sake a twelvemonth and a day, And I will leave whate’er belongs to auld Robin Gray.
I laid poor Robin in his grave as decent as I could, And shed a tear upon his grave, for he was very good;I took my rock all in my hand, and in my coat I sigh'd, O wae is me what shall I do, since poor old Robin died.
Search ev'ry part thoughout the land, there’s none like me forlorn;I’m ready e’en to ban the day that ever I was born;For Jamie, all I lov’d on earth, ah! he is gone away,My father dead, my mother dead, and (illegible text) auld Robin Gray.
I rose up with the morning sun, and spun till setting day,And one whole year of widowhood I mourn’d for Robin Gray;I did the duty of a wife, both kind and constant too;Let every one example take, aud Jenny's plan pursue.
I thought that Jamie he was dead, or he to me was lost,And all my fond and youthful love entirely was crost,I tried to sing, I tried to laugh, and pass the time away, Robin Gray.
At length the merry bells ran round, I coudna guess the cause,But Rodney was the man, they said, who gain’d so much applause;I doubted if the tale was true, till Jamie came to me, And shew'd a purse of golden ore, and said it is for thee.
Auld Robin Gray I find is dead, and still your heart is true, Then take me, Jenny, to your arms, and I will be so too;Mess John shall join us at the kirk, and we'll be blythe and gay;I blush’d, consented, and replied, adieu to Robin Gray.