BONNIE LESLEY. ROBERT BURNS. O saw ye bonnie Lesley As she gaed o'er the border? She's gane like Alexander, To spread her conquests farther. To see her is to love her, And love but her for ever; Thou art a queen, fair Lesley, The hearts o' men adore thee. The Deil he cou'dna scaith thee, And say, The powers aboon will tent thee; Misfortune sha'na steer thee; Thou'rt like themselves sae lovely, That ill they'll ne'er let near thee. Return again, fair Lesley, Return to Caledonie ! That we may brag, we hae a lass ["This rhapsody I composed on a charming Ayrshire girl, Miss Lesley Baillie, as she passed through Dumfries to England."BURNS. The poet accompanied Miss Baillie (afterwards Mrs. Cuming of Logie) and her father, fifteen miles on their road; "out of pure devotion to admire the loveliness of the works of God." Returning home he composed the above ballad, making a parody, he wrote to Mrs. Dunlop, upon an old ballad beginning My bonnie Lizie Bailie I'll rowe thee in my pladie. "I am in love," said the poet to another correspondent, "souse! over head and ears, deep as the most unfathomable abyss of the boundless ocean, with the most beautiful, elegant woman in the world."] HAD IA CAVE. ROBERT BURNS, Had I a cave on some wild, distant shore, Where the winds howl to the waves' dashing roar. There would I weep my woes, There seek my lost repose, Till grief my eyes should close, Ne'er to wake more. Falsest of womankind, canst thou declare, Laugh o'er thy perjury, [This "sublime song," as Mr. Cunningham justly calls it, relates, Burns tells us, to "an unfortunate part" of his friend Alexander Cunningham's story. The concluding verse when sung with great feeling, is awfully grand.] GALLA WATER. ROBERT BURNS. There's braw, braw lads on Yarrow braes, But Yarrow braes, nor Ettrick shaws, But there is ane, a secret ane, Aboon them a' I loe him better; Although his daddie was nae iaird, Yet rich in kindest, truest love, We'll tent our flocks by Galla water. It ne'er was wealth, it ne'er was wealth, That coft contentment, peace, or pleasure; The bands and bliss o' mutual love, O that's the chiefest warld's treasure! [The above song Burns wrote for George Thomson's Collection in 1793. The old words as printed by Herd and others, are- And follow my love thro' the water. Sae bonny blue her een my dearie, These verses appear to be words of two different songs, 'Galla Water,' and The Lassie lost her Silken Snood.' Mr. Robert Chambers has printed other copies of this old song from recitation. See "Scottish Songs," vol. ii. p. 327, p. 665.] WANDERING WILLIE. ROBERT BURNS. Here awa, there awa, wandering Willie, Here awa, there awa, haud awa hame; ae Come to my bosom, my ain only dearie, [And] Tell me thou bring'st me my Willie the same. Loud blew the cauld winter winds Winter winds blew loud and cauld at our parting, It was na the blast brought the tear, Fears for my Willie brought tears in my e'e; Now welcome the simmer, Welcome now simmer, and welcome my Willie, Ye hurricanes rest, Rest, ye wild storms, in the cave o' your slumbers; wild horrors [0] How your dread howling a lover alarms! Wauken, ye breezes, blow gently, ye billows, But if he's forgotten his faithfullest But oh, if he's faithless, and mindna his Nannie, O still flow Flow still between us, thou wide-roaring main; May I never see it, may I never trow it, But, dying, believe that my Willie's my ain. ["I leave it to you, my dear Sir, to determine whether the above, or the old "Thro' the Lang Muir," be the best."-BURNS. Letter to Thomson. |