XVII.
Reading edition
THERE’S NOUGHT BUT CARE.
Tune—“Green grow the rashes.”
[“Man was made when nature was but an apprentice; but woman is the last and most perfect work of nature,” says an old writer, in a rare old book: a passage which expresses the sentiment of Burns; yet it is all but certain, that the Ploughman Bard was unacquainted with “Cupid’s Whirlygig,” where these words are to be found.]
CHORUS.
Green grow the rashes, O! Green grow the rashes, O! The sweetest hours that e’er I spend Are spent amang the lasses, O.
I.
There’s nought but care on ev’ry han’, In every hour that passes, O: What signifies the life o’ man, An’ ’twere na for the lasses, O.
II.
The warly race may riches chase, An’ riches still may fly them, O; An’ tho’ at last they catch them fast, Their hearts can ne’er enjoy them, O.
III.
But gie me a canny hour at e’en, My arms about my dearie, O; An’ warly cares, an’ warly men, May a’ gae tapsalteerie, O.
IV.
For you sae douce, ye sneer at this, Ye’re nought but senseless asses, O: The wisest man the warl’ e’er saw, He dearly lov’d the lasses, O.
V.
Auld Nature swears the lovely dears Her noblest work she classes, O: Her ‘prentice han’ she try’d on man, An’ then she made the lasses, O. Green grow the rashes, O! Green grow the rashes, O! The sweetest hours that e’er I spend Are spent amang the lasses, O.