The Book of Scottish Song/The Wedding Day
The Wedding Day.
[Written by Dr. Thomas Blacklock, to an old Scotch tune called "How can I be sad on my wedding day."]
One night as young Colin lay musing in bed,
With a heart full of love and a vapourish head;
To wing the dull hours, and his sorrows allay,
Thus sweetly he sang of his wedding day:
"What would I give for a wedding day!
Who would not wish for a wedding day!
Wealth and ambition, I'd toss ye away,
With all ye can boast, for a wedding day.
Should heaven bid my wishes with freedom implore
One bliss for the anguish I suffered before,
For Jessy, dear Jessy, alone I would pray,
And grasp my whole wish on my wedding day!
Blessed be the approach of my wedding day!
Hail, my dear nymph and my wedding day!
Earth smile more verdant, and heaven shine more gay!
For happiness dawns with my wedding day."
But Luna, who equally sovereign presides
O'er the hearts of the ladies and flow of the tides,
Unhappily changing, soon changed his wife's mind:
O fate, could a wife prove so constant and kind!
"Why was I born to a wedding day!
Cursed, ever cursed be my wedding day."
Colin, poor Colin thus changes his lay,
And dates all his plagues from his wedding day.
We bachelors, warned by the shepherd's distress,
Be taught from your freedom to measure your bliss,
Nor fall to the witchcraft of beauty a prey,
And blast all your joys on your wedding day.
Horns are the gift of a wedding day;
Want and a scold crown a wedding day;
Happy and gallant, who, wise when he may
Prefers a stout rope to a wedding day!