Aft hae I roved by bonnie Doon, LASSIE WI' THE LINT-WHITE LOCKS. BURNS. Air-"Rothiemurchus's rant."* LASSIE wi' the lint-white locks, Now Nature cleeds the flowery lea, And when the welcome summer shower When Cynthia lights wi' silver ray The weary shearers' hameward way, Through yellow waving fields we'll stray, And talk o' love, my dearie O. *The air of Rothiemurchus's rant,' says Burns, "puts me in raptures. Unless I be pleased with a tune, I can never put verses to it. This piece," he adds, in a letter to Mr. Thomson, "has at least the merit of being a regular pastoral; the vernal morning, the summer noon, the autumnal evening, and the winter night, are regularly rounded. If you like it, well; if not, I will insert it in the Museum." Mr. Thomson replied, "Your verses for the 'Rothicmurchus' are so sweetly pastoral that I have sung myself into raptures with them." And when the howling wintry blast THE WOODLARK. BURNS. Air-" Loch Erroch side." OH, stay, sweet-warbling woodlark, stay, Again, again that tender part, Say, was thy little mate unkind, Thou tells o' never-ending care, "Let me know at your very first leisure," says Burns to Thomson, "how you like this song." Thomson replied, "I cannot express the feeling of admiration with which I read your pathetic Woodlark.'" HIGHLAND MARY. BURNS. Air-" Katharine Ogie." YE banks and braes and streams around The castle o' Montgomery, Green be your woods, and fair Your waters never drumlie. your flowers, H There Simmer first unfald her robes, How sweetly bloom'd the gay green birk, Wi' mony a vow and lock'd embrace, Oh, pale, pale now those rosy lips And closed for aye the sparkling glance "Highland Mary,'" says the Hon. A. Erskine, in a letter to Mr. George Thomson, "is most enchantingly pathetic." Burns says of it himself, in a letter to Mr. Thomson: "The foregoing song pleases myself; I think it is in my happiest manner; you will see at first glance that it suits the air. The subject of the song is one of the most interesting passages of my youthful days [see note to "Mary in Heaven," p. 92]; and I own that I should be much flattered to see the verses set to an air which would insure celebrity. Perhaps, after all, 'tis the still-growing prejudice of my heart that throws a borrowed lustre over the merits of the composition." THE BLUE-EYED LASSIE. BURNS. Air-The blaithrie o't." I GAED a waefu' gate yestreen, She talk'd, she smil'd, my heart she wiled, MY WIFE'S A WINSOME WEE THING. BURNS. Air-"My wife's a wanton wee thing." SHE is a winsome wee thing, This sweet wee wife o' mine. I never saw a fairer, I never lo'ed a dearer, And niest my heart I'll wear her, For fear my jewel tine. She is a winsome wee thing, The warld's wrack we share o't, And think my lot divine. "There is a peculiar rhythmus," says Burns, in a letter to Thomson, "in many of our airs, and a necessity of adapting syllables to the emphasis, or what I would call the feature-notes of the tune, that cramp the poet, and lay him under most insuperable difficulties. For instance, in the air, My wife's a winsome wee thing,' if a few lines smooth and pretty can be adapted to it, it is all you can expect. The following were made extempore to it; and though, on further study, I might give you something more profound, yet it might not suit the light-horse gallop of the air so well as this random clink." FOR THE SAKE OF SOMEBODY. BURNS. Air-"The Highland watch's farewell." My heart is sair, I darena tell, I could wake a winter night I could range the world around Ye powers that smile on virtuous love, Frae ilka danger keep him free, I wad do-what wad I not? For the sake of somebody! Altered and much improved from an older song of the same title. |