BEHOLD THE HOUR! TUNE Oran Gaoil. This piece, though sent Mr. Thomson in September, 1793, as "glowing from the mint," is only slightly altered from a song dedicated to Clarinda nearly two years before. BEHOLD the hour, the boat arrive! Thou goest, thou darling of my heart! Severed from thee, can I survive? But fate has willed, and we must part. I'll often greet this surging swell, Yon distant isle will often hail: "E'en here I took the last farewell; There, latest marked her vanished sail." Along the solitary shore, While flitting sea-fowl round me cry, Across the rolling, dashing roar, I'll westward turn my wistful eye. Happy, thou Indian grove, I'll say, DOWN THE BURN, DAVIE. "Down the Burn, Davie - I have this moment tried an alteration, leaving out the last half of the third stanza, and the first half of the last stanza." — Burns to Mr. Thomson, Sept. 1793. As down the burn they took their way, His cheek to hers he aft did lay, And love was aye the tale. With "Mary, when shall we return, Quoth Mary: "Love, I like the burn, And aye shall follow you." THOU HAST LEFT ME EVER. TUNE-Fee him, Father. “Fee him, Father — I enclose you Fraser's set of this tune when he plays it slow: in fact, he makes it the language of despair. I shall here give you two stanzas, in that style, merely to try if it will be any improvement. Were it possible, in singing, to give it half the pathos which Fraser gives it in playing, it would make an admirably pathetic song. I do not give these verses for any merit they have. I composed them at the time in which Patie Allan's mither died that was about the back o' midnight,' and by the lee-side of a bowl of punch, which had overset every mortal in company except the hautbois and the Muse." - Burns to Mr. Thomson, Sept. 1793. THOU hast left me ever, Jamie! thou hast left me ever; Thou hast left me ever, Jamie! thou hast left me ever: Aften hast thou vowed that death only should us sever; Now thou'st left thy lass for aye-I maun see thee never, Jamie, I'll see thee never. Thou hast me forsaken, Jamie! thou hast me forsaken; Thou hast me forsaken, Jamie! thou hast me forsaken : Thou canst love anither jo, while my heart is Altered to suit the air Lewie Gordon, at the instance of Mr. Thomson. SCOTS, wha hae wi' Wallace bled, 1 It is surprising that Burns should have thought it necessary to substitute new verses for the old song to this air, which is one of the most exquisite effusions of genuine natural sentiment in the whole range of Scottish lyrical poetry. Its merit is now fully appreciated, while Burns's substitute song is scarcely ever sung. Now's the day, and now's the hour; See approach proud Edward's power Wha will be a traitor knave? Traitor! coward! turn, and flee! Wha for Scotland's king and law By oppression's woes and pains! Lay the proud usurpers low ! Liberty's in every blow! Forward! let us do or die !2 1 This verse stood when the change was first made: "Sodger! hero! on wi' me!" 2 "I have borrowed the last stanza from the common stall edition of Wallace "A false usurper sinks in every foe, And liberty returns with every blow.' A couplet worthy of Homer." — B. |