BONNY MARY

Is one of the songs of my youth, and there are some good verses in it.

It is much too long for singing. Should it turn a favourite with any one, three verses are easily selected. It is preserved in the Noctes, and was published long before, Gudeness kens where.

WHERE Yarrow rows amang the rocks,

An' wheels an' boils in mony a linn,
A brisk young shepherd fed his flocks,

Unused to wranglement or din;

But love its silken net had thrown

Around his breast, so brisk an' airy,
An' his blue eyes wi' moisture shone,

As thus he sang of bonny Mary.

O Mary, thou’rt sae mild and sweet,

My very being clings about thee;
This heart would rather cease to beat,

Than beat a lonely thing without thee.

I see thee in the evening beam

A radiant, glorious apparition ; I see thee in the midnight dream,

By the dim light of heavenly vision !

When over Benger's haughty head

The morning breaks in streaks sae bonny, I climb the mountain's velvet side,

For quiet rest I get nae ony.
How dear the lair on yon hill cheek,

Where many a weary hour I tarry,
For there I see the twisting reek

Rise frae the cot where dwells my Mary!

When Phæbus keeks outower the muir,

His gowden locks a' streaming gaily;
When Morn has breathed her fragrance pure,

An' life an' joy ring through the valley,
I drive my flocks to yonder brook-
The feeble in my arms

I

carry, Then every lammie's harmless look

Brings to my mind my bonny Mary!

Oft has the lark sung ower my head,

And shook the dewdrops frae his wing, Oft hae my flocks forgot to feed,

An' round their shepherd form’d a ring. Their looks condole the lee-lang day,

While mine are fixʼd and never vary, Aye turning down the westlin brae,

Where dwells my loved, my bonny Mary!

When gloaming, creeping west the lift,

Wraps in deep shadow dell and dingle, An' lads an' lasses mak a shift

To raise some fun around the ingle, Regardless o' the wind or rain,

Wi' cautious step and prospect wary, I often trace the lonely glen

To steal a sight o' bonny Mary!

When midnight draws her curtain deep,

An' lays the breeze amang the bushes, An' Yarrow in her sounding sweep,

By rock and ruin raves and rushes,

Though sunk in deep and quiet sleep,

My fancy wings her flight so airy,
To where sweet guardian spirits keep

Their watch around the couch of Mary!

The exile may forget his home

Where blooming youth to manhood grew;
The bee forget the honey-comb,

Nor with the spring his toil renew;
The sun may lose his light and heat,

The planets in their rounds miscarry,
But my fond heart shall cease to beat

When I forget my bonny Mary!

TICKLER.

Equal to any thing in Burns!

NORTH.

Not a better in all George Thomson's collection. Thank you, James-God bless you, James.

Give me your hand. You're a most admirable fellow, and there's no end to your genius.

SHEPHERD.

A man may be sair mista'en about many things, sic as yepics, an' tragedies, an' tales, an' even lang set elegies about the death o' great public characters, an' hymns, an' odes, an' the like, but he canna be mista'en about a sang. As sune as it's down on the sclate, I ken whether it's gude, bad, or middlin'. If ony o' the twa last I dight it out wi' my elbow,—if the first, I copy it ower into writ, and then get it aff by heart, when it's as sure o' no being lost as it war engraven on a brass plate. For though I hae a treacherous memory about things in ordinar, a' my happy sangs will cleave to my heart till my dying day; an' I shouldna wonder gin I war to croon a verse or twa frae some o' them on my deathbed.—Noctes AMBROSIANÆ, No. XXVII.