Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Thomas Humphry Ward, ed. The English Poets. 1880–1918.rnVol. III. The Eighteenth Century: Addison to Blake

Robert Burns (1759–1796)

Highland Mary

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’ monie a vow, and locked embrace,

Our parting was fu’ tender;

And, pledging aft to meet again,

We tore oursels asunder;

But oh! 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 ay the sparkling glance,

That dwelt on me sae kindly!

And mould’ring now in silent dust,

That heart that lo’ed me dearly!

But still within my bosom’s core

Shall live my Highland Mary.