Robert Burns (1759–1796). Poems and Songs.
The Harvard Classics. 1909–14.
538 . SongNow Spring has clad the grove in green
N
And strew’d the lea wi’ flowers;
The furrow’d, waving corn is seen
Rejoice in fostering showers.
While ilka thing in nature join
Their sorrows to forego,
The weary steps o’ woe! That glides, a silver dart, And, safe beneath the shady thorn, Defies the angler’s art— My life was ance that careless stream, That wanton trout was I; But Love, wi’ unrelenting beam, Has scorch’d my fountains dry. In yonder cliff that grows, Which, save the linnet’s flight, I wot, Nae ruder visit knows, Was mine, till Love has o’er me past, And blighted a’ my bloom; And now, beneath the withering blast, My youth and joy consume. And climbs the early sky, Winnowing blythe his dewy wings In morning’s rosy eye; As little reck’d I sorrow’s power, Until the flowery snare O’witching Love, in luckless hour, Made me the thrall o’ care. Or Afric’s burning zone, Wi’man and nature leagued my foes, So Peggy ne’er I’d known! The wretch whose doom is “Hope nae mair” What tongue his woes can tell; Within whase bosom, save Despair, Nae kinder spirits dwell.