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Home  »  The Oxford Book of English Verse  »  502. O were my Love yon Lilac fair

Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed. 1919. The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900.

Robert Burns. 1759–1796

502. O were my Love yon Lilac fair

O WERE my Love yon lilac fair, 
  Wi’ purple blossoms to the spring, 
And I a bird to shelter there, 
  When wearied on my little wing; 
How I wad mourn when it was torn         5
  By autumn wild and winter rude! 
But I wad sing on wanton wing 
  When youthfu’ May its bloom renew’d. 
 
O gin my Love were yon red rose 
  That grows upon the castle wa’,  10
And I mysel a drap o’ dew, 
  Into her bonnie breast to fa’; 
O there, beyond expression blest, 
  I’d feast on beauty a’ the night; 
Seal’d on her silk-saft faulds to rest,  15
  Till fley’d awa’ by Phoebus’ light.