Page:The poetical works of Robert Burns.djvu/354
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THE SONGS OF BURNS.
THE JOYFUL WIDOWER.
TUNE—'MAGGY LAUDER.'
I married with a scolding wife The fourteenth of November; She made me weary of my life, By one unruly member. Long did I bear the heavy yoke,And many griefs attended; But, to my comfort be it spoke, Now, now her life is ended.
We lived full one-and-twenty yearsA man and wife together;At length from me her course she steer'd,And gone I know not whither:Would I could guess, I do profess,I speak, and do not flatter,Of all the women in the world,I never could come at her.
Her body is bestowed well,A handsome grave does hide her;But sure her soul is not in hell,The deil would ne'er abide her.I rather think she is aloft,And imitating thunder;For why,—methinks I hear her voiceTearing the clouds asunder.
IT IS NA, JEAN, THY BONIE FACE.
TUNE—'THE MAID'S COMPLAINT.'
It is na, Jean, thy bonie face, Nor shape that I admire,Although thy beauty and thy graceMight weel awake desire.Something, in ilka part o' thee,To praise, to love, I find;But dear as is thy form to me, Still dearer is thy mind.
Nae mair ungen'rous wish I hae,Nor stronger in my breast,Than if I canna mak thee sae,At least to see thee blest.Content am I, if Heaven shall giveBut happiness to thee:And as wi' thee I'd wish to live,For thee I'd bear to die.
THE SLAVE'S LAMENT
It was in sweet Senegal that my foes did me enthral,For the lands of Virginia, O;Torn from that lovely shore, and must never see it more,And alas I am weary, weary, O!
All on that charming coast is no bitter snow or frost,Like the lands of Virginia, O;There streams for ever flow, and there flowers for ever blow,And alas I am weary, weary, O!
The burden I must bear, while the cruel scourge I fear,In the lands of Virginia, O;And I think on friends most dear, with the bitter, bitter tear,And alas I am weary, weary, O!