Glen Collection of printed music > Printed text > Scottish songs > Volume 1

227
The dearest maid's in yon toun,
His setting beam e'er shone upon.
If angry fate be sworn my foe,
And suffering I am doom'd to bear,
I'll careless quit aught else below ;
But spare, oh I spare me Jeanie dear.
For, while life's dearest blood runs warm,
My thoughts frae her shall ne'er depart
For, as most lovely is her form,
She has the truest, kindest heart.*
THE BOATIE ROWS.f
Tune — The Boatie rows.
WEEL may the boatie row,
And better may she speed !
And weel may the boatie row,
That wins the bairns's bread I
The boatie rows, the boatie rows,
The boatie rows indeed ;
And happy be the lot of a'
That wishes her to speed !
1 cuist my line in Largo Bay,
And fishes I caught nine ;
There's three to boil, and three to fry,
And three to bait the line.
The boatie rows, the boatie rows.
The boatie rows indeed ;
And happy be the lot of a'
That wishes her to speed !
* This SQng was written upon Miss Lucy Johnstone, afterwards Mrs Os-
wald of Auchincruive, a most accomplished and lovely woman, who died
in the prime of life at Lisbon. The poet, in his first fervour, thought of
sending his song to the heroine, but immediately after gave up the idea ;
because, said he, in a letter to Mr Syme, " perhaps what I offer as the
honest incense of genuine respect, might, from the well-known character of
poverty and poetry, be construed into some modification of that servility
which my soul abhors."
t Stated by Burns to have been written by a Mr Ewen of Aberdeen.