Glen Collection of printed music > Printed text > Scottish ballads

276
The waxen lichts were burnin biicht,
And fair Annie streekit there.
He's lifted up the coverlet,
Where she fair Annie lay ;
Sweit was her smile, but wan her cheik ;
Oh, wan, and cauld as clay !
" Oh, I will kiss your cheik, Annie,
And I will kiss your chin ;
And I will kiss your clay-cauld lip ;
But I will never kiss woman again.
This day ye birl at my love's wake
The white breid and the wine ;
Before the morn at twal o'clock,
Ye'll birl the same at mine !"
They birled, they birled at Annie's wake
The white breid and the wine;
And ere the morn, at that same time,
At his they birled the same.
The tane was buriet in Marie's kirk,
The tother in Marie's quier ;
And out o' the tane there grew a birk,
And out o' the tother a brier.
And aye they grew, and aye they drew,
As they wald faine be neire,
And every ane that passed them by,
Said, " Thae's been lovers deire !"*^
* This very affecting ballad was first published, under the title of" Lord
Thomas and Fair Annet," in Percy's Reliques. A version less corrupted
and more at large was afterwards given, under the name of " Sweet Willie
and Fair Annie," by Mr Jamieson, from the recitation of an old lady at
Arbroath. The above edition is composed out of the two, with some
amended readings and additional verses from a manuscript copy which has