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

196
THE SONGS OF SCOTLAND.
MODEUATO.
II.
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WHEN THE KYE COMES HAME
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Come all ye jol - ly shep- herds That whis-tle through the glen, I'll
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tell ye of a se - cret That court-iers din - na ken. What is the greatest bliss That the
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tongue of man can name? Tis to woo a bon-nie las-sie When the kye comes Lame. When the
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;ye comes hame, When the kye comes hame, 'Tweenthe gloam-in' and the mirk, When the kye comes hame.
'Tis not beneath the burgonet, 1
Nor yet beneath the crowD,
'Tis not on couch of velvet,
Nor yet on bed of down :
'Tis beneath the spreading birch,
In the dell without a name,
Wi' a bonnie, bonnie lassie,
When the kye comes hame.
There the blackbird bigs 2 his nest
For the mate he loves to see,
And up upon the tapmost bough,
Oh, a happy bird is he !
Then he pours his melting ditty,
And love 'tis a' the theme,
And he'll woo his bonnie lassie
When the kye comes hame.
When the bluart 3 bears a pearl,
And the daisy turns a pea,
And the bonnie lucken gowan
Has fauldit up his e'e,
Then the laverock frae the blue lift
Draps down, and thinks nae shame
To woo his bonnie lassie
When the kye comes hame.
1 A k : nd of helmet. 2 Builds.
Then the eye shines sae bright,
The haill soul to beguile,
There's love in every whisper,
And joy in every smile ;
0, who would choose a crown,
Wi' its perils and its fame,
And miss a bonnie lassie
When the kye comes hame?
See yonder pawky 4 shepherd
That lingers on the hill —
His yowes are in the fauld,
And his lambs are lying still ;
Yet he downa gang to rest,
For his heart is in a flame
To meet his bonnie lassie
When the kye comes hame.
Awa' wi' fame and fortune —
What comfort can they gi'e ? —
And a' the arts that prey
On man's life and libertie !
Gi'e me the highest joy
That the heart o' man can frame ;
My bonnie, bonnie lassie,
When the kye comes hame.
3 The bilberry.
i Sly, artfuL
" When tue kve comes hame." In " Songs by the Ettrick Shepherd, now first collected, Blackwood, Edinburgh,
1831," James Hogg himself writes the following notes upon this song : — " In the title and chorus of this favourite
pastoral song, I choose rather to violate a rule in grammar, than a Scottish phrase so common, that when it is altered
into the proper way, every shepherd and shepherd's sweetheart account it nonsense. I was once singing it at a
wedding with great glee the latter way, (' when the kye come hame,') when a tailor, scratching his head, said, ' It
was a terrible affectit way that !' I stood corrected, and have never sung it so again. It is to the old tune of ' Shame
fa' the gear and the blathrie o't,' with an additional chorus. It is set to music in the Noctes, at which it was first
sung, and in no other place that I am aware of." "I composed the foregoing song I neither know how nor
when ; for when the ' Three Perils of Man' came first to my hand, and I saw this song put into the mouth of a drunken
poet, and mangled in the singing, I had no recollection of it whatever. I had written it off-hand along with the prose,
and quite forgot it. But I liked it, altered it, and it has been my favourite pastoral for singing ever since. It is too
long to be sung from beginning to end ; but only the second and antepenult verses [stanzas] can possibly be dispensed
with, and these not very well neither." As we do not think that Hogg improved his song by altering it, we adopt
the earlier version. The air to which Hogg adapted his words is not a true version of " The Blathrie o't," but one
considerably altered.