CCLII.
Reading edition
’TWAS NA HER BONNIE BLUE EEN.
Tune—“Laddie, lie near me.”
[Though the lady who inspired these verses is called Mary by the poet, such, says tradition, was not her name: yet tradition, even in this, wavers, when it avers one while that Mrs. Riddel, and at another time that Jean Lorimer was the heroine.]
I.
’Twas na her bonnie blue een was my ruin; Fair tho’ she be, that was ne’er my undoing: ’Twas the dear smile when naebody did mind us, ’Twas the bewitching, sweet stown glance o’ kindness.
II.
Sair do I fear that to hope is denied me, Sair do I fear that despair maun abide me! But tho’ fell fortune should fate us to sever, Queen shall she be in my bosom for ever.
III.
Mary, I’m thine wi’ a passion sincerest, And thou hast plighted me love o’ the dearest! And thou’rt the angel that never can alter— Sooner the sun in his motion would falter.