Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Scotland: Vols. VI–VIII. 1876–79.
Wearies Well
By William Motherwell (17971835)I
In yon dowie dell,
It was there we twa first met,
By Wearie’s cauld well.
We sat on the broom bank,
And looked in the burn,
But sidelang we looked on
Ilk ither in turn.
His sad eerie cry,
And the wee stars were dreaming
Their path through the sky;
The burn babbled freely
Its love to ilk flower,
But we heard and we saw naught
In that blessed hour.
Above or around;
We felt that our luve lived,
And loathed idle sound.
I gazed on your sweet face
Till tears filled my e’e,
And they drapt on your wee loof,—
A warld’s wealth to me.
On bare holm and lea,
And the cauld wind is strippin’
Ilk leaf aff the tree.
But the snaw fa’s not faster,
Nor leaf disna part
Sae sune frae the bough, as
Faith fades in your heart.
Your bridegroom to be;
But can his heart luve sae
As mine luvit thee?
Ye ’ll get biggings and mailins,
And mony braw claes;
But they a’ winna buy back
The peace o’ past days.
My first luve and last;
May thy joys be to come,—
Mine live in the past.
In sorrow and sadness
This hour fa’s on me;
But light, as thy luve, may
It fleet over thee!