Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

J. C. Squire, ed. A Book of Women’s Verse. 1921.

By Alison Cockburn (1712–1794)

The Flowers of the Forest

I’VE seen the smiling of Fortune beguiling,

I’ve tasted her favours, and felt her decay;

Sweet is her blessing, and kind her caressing,

But soon it is fled,—it is fled far away.

I’ve seen the forest adorn’d of the foremost,

With flowers of the fairest, both pleasant and gay;

Full sweet was their blooming, their scent the air perfuming,

But now they are wither’d and a’ wede away.

I’ve seen the morning, with gold the hills adorning,

And the red storm roaring, before the parting day;

I’ve seen Tweed’s silver streams, glittering in the sunny beams,

Turn drumly and dark, as they roll’d on their way.

O fickle Fortune! why this cruel sporting?

Why thus perplex us poor sons of a day?

Thy frowns cannot fear me, thy smiles cannot cheer me,

Since the flowers of the forest are a’ wede away.