Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Scotland: Vols. VI–VIII. 1876–79.

Ayr, the River

Highland Mary

By Robert Burns (1759–1796)

YE banks and braes and streams around

The castle o’ Montgomery,

Green be your woods, and fair your flowers,

Your waters never drumlie!

There simmer first unfauld her robes,

And there the langest tarry;

For there I took the last fareweel

O’ my sweet Highland Mary.

How sweetly bloomed the gay green birk,

How rich the hawthorn’s blossom,

As underneath their fragrant shade

I clasped her to my bosom!

The golden hours on angel wings

Flew o’er me and my dearie;

For dear to me as light and life

Was my sweet Highland Mary.

Wi’ mony a vow and locked embrace

Our parting was fu’ tender;

And pledging aft to meet again,

We tore oursels asunder;

But, O, fell death’s untimely frost,

That nipt my flower sae early!

Now green ’s the sod, and cauld ’s the clay,

That wraps my Highland Mary!

O, pale, pale now, those rosy lips,

I aft hae kissed sae fondly!

And closed for aye the sparkling glance

That dwelt on me sae kindly;

And mouldering now in silent dust

That heart that lo’ed me dearly!

But still within my bosom’s core

Shall live my Highland Mary.