The waes o' my heart fa' in showers frae my I wish that I were dead, but I'm no like to e'e, While my gudeman lies sound by me. 2 dee; And why was I born to say, Wae's me! 9 Young Jamie lo 'ed me weel, and sought me for I gang like a ghaist, and I carena to spin; his bride; But saving a croun he had naething else beside; To make the croun a pund, young Jamie gaed to sea; And the croun and the pund were baith for me. 3 He hadna been awa' a week but only twa, When my father brak his arm, and the cow was stown29 awa'; My mother she fell sick,-and my Jamie at the sea And auld Robin Gray came a-courtin' me. 4 My father couldna work, and my mother couldna spin; I toiled day and night, but their bread 1 couldna win; Auld Rob maintained them baith, and wi' tears in his e'e Said, "Jennie, for their sakes, O, marry me!"' 5 My heart it said nay; I looked for Jamie back; His ship it was a wrack-why didna Jamie dee? 6 My father urged me sair: my mother didna speak; But she looked in my face till my heart was like to break: They gi'ed him my hand, tho' my heart was in the sea; Sae auld Robin Gray he was gudeman to me. 7 1 hadna been a wife a week but only four, When mournfu' as I sat on the stane at the door, I saw my Jamie's wraith,-for I couldna think it he, Till he said, "I'm come hame to marry thee." 8 O sair, sair did we greet,30 and mickle31 say of a'; We took but ae kiss, and I bade him gang awa'; 29 stolen 30 cry 31 much (or possibly 3 knolls My dearest meed, a friend's esteem and praise; † 2 November chill blaws loud wi' angry sugh;1 me 6 fire-place or fire 7 anxiety 8 by and by 9 drive 10 heedful that he thought there was something peculiarly venerable in the phrase, 'Let us worship God,' used by a decent, sober head of a family, introducing family worship. Το this sentiment of the author, the world is indebted for The Cotter's Saturday Night. The cotter is an exact copy of my father, in his manners, his family devotion, and exhortations; yet the other parts of the description do not apply to our family. None of us were 'at service out among the farmers roun'. Instead of our depositing our 'sairwon penny-fee' with our parents, my father laboured hard, and lived with the most rigid economy, that he might be able to keep his children at home." Mr. J. L. Robertson, commenting on the fact that more than half the poem is in English, says: "An unusually elevated or serious train of thought in the mind of a Scottish peasant seems to demand for its expression the use of a speech which one may describe as Sabbath Scotch." Alken was not only a patron, but a genuine friend. of Burns. A cannie11 errand to a neibor town: Or deposite her sair-won penny-fee, What makes the youth sae bashfu' and sae grave, Weel-pleas'd to think her bairn's respected like the lave.22 9 O happy love! where love like this is found! To help her parents dear, if they in hard-O heart-felt raptures! bliss beyond compare! ship be. I've paced much this weary, mortal round, And sage experience bids me this declare,"If Heaven a draught of heavenly pleasure spare, One cordial in this melancholy vale, "Tis when a youthful, loving, modest pair In other's arms breathe out the tender tale, Beneath the milk-white thorn that scents the ev'ning gale.'' And "Let us worship God!" he says with The Pow 'r, incens 'd, the pageant will desert, solemn air. 13 They chant their artless notes in simple guise, Or plaintive Martyrs,' worthy of the name; 14 The priest-like father reads the sacred page, The pompous strain, the sacerdotal stole; And in His Book of Life the inmates poor enrol. 18 Then homeward all take off their sev'ral way; 19 From scenes like these old Scotia's grandeur springs, That makes her lov'd at home, rever'd abroad: Princes and lords are but the breath of kings, Or other holy seers that tune the sacred lyre. "An honest man's the noblest work of 15 Perhaps the Christian volume is the theme, And heard great Bab'lon's doom pronounc'd by Heav'n's command. 16 9714 Then kneeling down to Heaven's Eternal King, God; ''15 O Thou! who pour'd the patriotic tide While circling Time moves round in an eter- Who dar'd to nobly stem tyrannic pride, 17 Or nobly die, the second glorious part,— (The patriot's God peculiarly thou art, Compar'd with this, how poor Religion's pride His friend, inspirer, guardian, and reward!) |