Ralph Waldo Emerson, comp. (1803–1882). Parnassus: An Anthology of Poetry. 1880.
Jeanie MorrisonWilliam Motherwell (1797–1835)
O
The thochts o’ bygane years
Still fling their shadows ower my path,
And blind my een wi’ tears!
They blind my een wi’saut, saut tears,
And sair and sick I pine,
As Memory idly summons up
The blythe blinks o’ langsyne.
’Twas then we twa did part;
Sweet time, sad time!—twa bairns at schule,
Twa bairns, and but ae heart!
’Twas then we sat on ae laigh bink,
To leir ilk ither lear;
And tones, and looks, and smiles were shed,
Remembered evermair.
When sitting on that bink,
Cheek touchin’ cheek, loof locked in loof,
What our wee heads could think!
When baith bent down ower ae braid page
Wi’ ae buik on our knee,
Thy lips were on thy lesson, but
My lesson was in thee.
How cheeks brent red wi’ shame,
Whene’er the schule-weans laughin’ said,
We cleek’d thegither hame?
And mind ye o’ the Saturdays
(The schule then skail’t at noon),
When we ran aff to speel the braes—
The broomy braes o’ June?
The deavin’ dinsome toun,
To wander by the green burnside,
And hear its water croon?
The simmer leaves hung ower our heads,
The flowers burst round our feet,
And in the gloamin’ o’ the wud
The throssil whusslit sweet.
The burn sung to the trees,
And we, with Nature’s heart in tune,
Concerted harmonies;
And on the knowe abune the burn
For hours thegither sat
In the silentness o’ joy, till baith
Wi’ very gladness grat.
Since we were sindered young,
I’ve never seen your face, nor heard
The music o’ your tongue;
But I could hug all wretchedness,
And happy could I dee,
Did I but ken your heart still dreamed
O’ bygane days and me!