Glen Collection of printed music > Printed music > Wood's edition of the songs of Scotland

THE SONGS OF SCOTLAND.
43
OF A' THE AIRTS THE WIND CAN BLAW.
Al'FKITl'OSO.
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Of a' the airts 1 the wind can blaw, I dear - ly like the west ; For
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there the bon - nie las - sie lives, The lass that I lo'e best: Tho' wild woods grow, an' ri - vers row, Wi'
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mo - nie a hill be - tween, Baith day an' night, my fan - cy's flight Is e - ver wi' my Jean.
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see her in the dew - y flow'r, Sae love - ly, sweet, an' fair ; I
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hear her voice in il - Ua bird, Wi' mu - sic charm the air: There's not a bon-nie flow'r that springs, By
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foun-tain, shaw, or green, Nor yet a bon - nie bird that sings, But minds me o' my Jean.
blaw, ye westlin winds, blaw saft
Amang the leafy trees ;
Wi' gentle gale, frae nmir and dale,
Bring harue the laden bees ;
An' bring the lassie back to me
" Wi' her tvva witchin' een ;"
Ae blink o' her wad banish care,
Sae lovely is my Jean !
What sighs an' vows amang the knowes,
Ha'e past atween us twa 1
How fain to meet, how wae to part,
That day she gaed awa' !
The powers aboon can only ken,
To whom the heart is seen,
That nane can be sae dear to me,
As my sweet lovely Jean !
1 Airt — direction, poiut of the compass.
" Of a' the airts tue wind can blaw." As to this air, see Note, page 6, and also Note, page 42. The song is
certainly one of Burns' best, so far as he wrote it. Captain Charles Gray, R.M., in his " Cursory Remarks on Scottish
Song," says, that he believes " Burns did not write more than the first sixteen lines of this beautiful song." He also
observes that the third and fourth stanzas were not found among Burns' MSS. after his death ; and that none of his
editors or commentators, except Allan Cunningham and Motherwell, have claimed them for Burns. Farther, that
Dr. Curric in his edition of Burns, Mr. Stenhouse in " Johnson's Musical Museum," and Mr. David Laing in his addi
tional notes to that work, do not mention these stanzas as of Burns' composition ; and that Mr. George Thomson, in
his -'Melodies of Scotland," (edition of 1838,) has rejected them as spurious. By some they have been ascribed to
William Reid, Bookseller, Glasgow; but Captain Gray is rather inclined to believe they were written by John
Hamilton, Musicseller, Edinburgh.