ET. 35.] BONNY JEAN. 69 BONNY JEAN. "I have just finished the following ballad, and, as I do think it in my best style, I send it you. "The heroine is Miss Macmurdo, daughter to Mr. Macmurdo of Drumlanrig. I have not painted her in the rank which she holds in life, but in the dress and character of a cottager."— Burns to Mr. Thomson, 2d July, 1793. THERE was a lass, and she was fair, And aye she wrought her mammie's wark, And aye she sang sae merrilie : The blithest bird upon the bush Had ne'er a lighter heart than she. But hawks will rob the tender joys That bless the little lintwhite's nest; linnet And frost will blight the fairest flowers, Young Robie was the brawest lad, The flower and pride of a' the glen; 70 BONNY JEAN. [1793. And he had owsen, sheep, and kye, He gaed wi' Jeanie to the tryste, He danced wi' Jeanie on the down; And lang ere witless Jeanie wist, Her heart was tint, her peace was stown. lost As in the bosom o' the stream The moonbeam dwells at dewy e'en, So trembling, pure, was tender love Within the breast o' bonny Jean.1 And now she works her mammie's wark, But did na Jeanie's heart loup light, Ae e'enin' on the lily lea? The sun was sinking in the west, The birds sang sweet in ilka grove; His cheek to hers he fondly prest, And whispered thus his tale o' love: 1 "In the original manuscript, our poet asks Mr. Thomson if this stanza is not original."— CURRIE. ÆT. 35.] PHILLIS THE FAIR. 71 "O Jeanie fair, I lo'e thee dear; O canst thou think to fancy me? Or wilt thou leave thy mammie's cot, And learn to tent the farms wi' me? tend "At barn or byre thou shalt na drudge, cow-house Or naething else to trouble thee; But stray amang the heather-bells, Now what could artless Jeanie do ? PHILLIS THE FAIR. TUNE - Robin Adair. "I have tried my hand on Robin Adair, and, you will probably think, with little success; but it is such a cursed, cramp, out-of-the-way measure, that I despair of doing anything better to it."— Burns to Mr. Thomson, August, 1793. WHILE larks with little wing Fanned the pure air, 72 PHILLIS THE FAIR. [1793. Forth I did fare: Gay the sun's golden eye Peeped o'er the mountains high; Phillis the fair. In each bird's careless song While yon wild-flowers among, Chance led me there: Sweet to the opening day, Rosebuds bent the dewy spray; Such thy bloom! did I say, Phillis the fair. Down in a shady walk I marked the cruel hawk Caught in a snare: He who would injure thee, Phillis the fair.1 1 "So much for namby-pamby. I may, after all, try my hand on it in Scots verse. There I always find myself most at home."- B. Burns is understood to have, in Phillis the Fair, represented the tender feelings which Clarke entertained towards Miss Philadelphia M'Murdo, one of his pupils. This lady afterwards became Mrs. Norman Lockhart, of Carnwath. ET. 35.] HAD I A CAVE. HAD I A CAVE. TUNE - Robin Adair. "That crinkum-crankum tune, Robin Adair, has run so in my head, and I succeeded so ill in my last attempt, that I have ventured, in this morning's walk, one essay more. You, my dear sir, will remember an unfortunate part of our worthy friend Cunningham's story, which happened about three years ago.1 That struck my fancy, and I endeavoured to do the idea justice as follows.". Burns to Mr. Thomson, August, 1793. 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, Falsest of womankind! canst thou declare 1 Cunningham had wooed a young lady of many personal attractions; but, on another lover presenting himself, with some superior pretensions of an extrinsic character, she deserted the poet's friend with a degree of coolness which seems to have for the time excited great and general surprise. |