WHISTLE AND I'LL COME TO YOU I listen'd to a lover's sang, An' thought on youthfu' pleasures mony; "O, happy be the woodbine bower, The place and time I met my Dearie ! The sacred vow we ne'er should sever." The haunt o' Spring's the primrose-brae, Is Autumn in her weeds o' yellow; Like meeting her, our bosom's treasure? Whistle and I'll come to you, my Lad.1 Chorus.-O WHISTLE an' I'll come to ye, my lad, Tho' father an' mother an' a' should gae mad, But warily tent when ye come to court me, PHILLIS THE QUEEN O'FAIR And come as ye were na comin to me, At kirk, or at market, whene'er ye meet me, Aye vow and protest that ye care na for me, Phillis the Queen o' the Fair.1 Tune—“The Muckin o' Geordie's Byre." ADOWN winding Nith I did wander, Chorus.-Awa' wi' your belles and your beauties, The daisy amus'd my fond fancy, 1 Inspired by Miss M'Murdo. 2 Here four lines are deleted in the MS. : "The primrose is o'er for the season, But mark where the violet is blown; " COME, LET ME TAKE THEE The rose-bud's the blush o' my charmer, Yon knot of gay flowers in the arbour, Her voice is the song o' the morning, That wakes thro' the green-spreading grove, But beauty, how frail and how fleeting! Come, let me take thee to my breast.1 1 A mosaic. COME, let me take thee to my breast, And pledge we ne'er shall sunder; And I shall spurn as vilest dust The world's wealth and grandeur: That I may live to love her. Lines written many years earlier, in "Peggy Alison," are added to verses suggested by Jean Lorimer. DAINTY DAVIE Thus, in my arms, wi' a' her charms, Dainty Davie.1 Now rosy May comes in wi' flowers, Chorus.-Meet me on the warlock knowe, The crystal waters round us fa', As purple morning starts the hare, When day, expiring in the west,' 1 An old Scottish hero of song; the name was bestowed on the Rev. David Williamson, the Covenanting minister so justly admired by Charles II. for his prowess and presence of mind in very trying circumstances. ROBERT BRUCE'S MARCH Robert Bruce's March to Bannockburn.1 SCOTS, wha hae wi' WALLACE bled, Or to Victorie! Now's the day, and now's the hour; See approach proud EDWARD's power- Wha will be a traitor knave? Let him turn and flee! Wha, for Scotland's King and Law, 1 The tradition that the Scots fought at Bannockburn to the tune Hey, tuttie taitie, cannot, one fears, be verified. If widely diffused, as Burns says it was, it must have been of some antiquity. The story that Burns made the words while riding in Galloway on a stormy day is contradicted by his own letter to Thomson (Sept. 1793). Writing to Lord Buchan, (Jan. 12, 1794), Burns shews that he imagined Edward I. to have been the King vanquished at Bannockburn. No mortal could call Edward II. "a cruel but able usurper." The Malleus Scotorum would have rendered another account of himself. In order to fit the words to the tune Lewie Gordon, Thomson suggested very feeble expansions of the last line of each verse, and Burns was persuaded to extend these as follows:1. Or to glorious victory. 2. Edward! chains and slavery. 3. Traitor! coward! turn and flee. 4. Sodger! hero! on wi' me. 5. But they shall be-shall be free. 6. Forward! let us do or die! This result of Thomson's intermeddling has been universally rejected. 2 In the first draft of the poem the second and the fifth verses read, Now's the day, and now's the hour, See approach proud Edward's power; Sharply maun we bide the stourEither they, or we. Do you hear your children cry "Were we born in chains to lie No! come Death or Liberty! Yes, they shall be free! |