I neither hae father nor mither, Sage counsel or caution to gie; Dear lassie, how can ye upbraid me, Your smile, that is blither than ony, An' the sweet blinks o' love there sae bonny, She turn'd her around, an' said, smiling, Gae make out the lease, do not linger, An' then, for a wave o' your finger, I'll gang to the brakens wi' thee!" There's joy in the bright blooming feature, When love lurks in every young line; There's joy in the beauties of nature, There's joy in the dance and the wine: But there's a delight will ne'er perish, 'Mang pleasures all fleeting an' vain, And that is to love and to cherish The fond little heart that's our ain! THE MINSTREL BOY WAS written as a per contra to Mr Moore's song to the same air. But either he or his publishers, or both, set up their birses, and caused it and a great many more to be cancelled, the most ridiculous of all things, in my opinion, I ever knew. It was manifestly because they saw mine were the best. Let them take that! as Gideon Laidlaw said when the man died who had cheated him. THE Minstrel Boy to the glen is gone, He sings of nature all in her prime, Of mountain heath and moorland thyme, How wildly sweet is the minstrel's lay, The bard may indite, and the minstrel sing, But unless there be love in the heart within, The ditty will charm but sparely. FAREWELL TO GLEN-SHALLOCH. THIS Jacobite song is set to an old Highland melody, by the late Mr R. A. Smith, to whom the vocal melodies of Scotland are more indebted than to any man that ever existed. The song itself was composed from a scrap of a translation in prose of what Mrs Fraser said was a Gaelic song. FAREWELL to Glen-Shalloch, A farewell for ever! Farewell to my wee cot That stands by the river! The fall is loud sounding In voices that vary, Lament with my Mary. I saw her last night, 'Mid the rocks that enclose them, With a child at her knee, And a child at her bosom : |