CCIX.
Reading edition
THOU HAST LEFT ME EVER.
Tune—“Fee him, father.”
[“I do not give these verses,” says Burns to Thomson, “for any merit they have. I composed them at the time in which ‘Patie Allan’s mither died, about the back o’ midnight,’ and by the lee side of a bowl of punch, which had overset every mortal in company, except the hautbois and the muse.” To the poet’s intercourse with musicians we owe some fine songs.]
I.
Thou hast left me ever, Jamie! Thou hast left me ever; Thou hast left me ever, Jamie! Thou hast left me ever. Aften hast thou vow’d that death Only should us sever; Now thou’s left thy lass for ay— I maun see thee never, Jamie, I’ll see thee never!
II.
Thou hast me forsaken, Jamie! Thou hast me forsaken; Thou hast me forsaken, Jamie! Thou hast me forsaken. Thou canst love anither jo, While my heart is breaking: Soon my weary een I’ll close, Never mair to waken, Jamie, Ne’er mair to waken!