LXXII.
Reading edition
MY BONNIE MARY.
Tune—“Go fetch to me a pint o’ wine.”
[Concerning this fine song, Burns in his notes says, “This air is Oswald’s: the first half-stanza of the song is old, the rest is mine.” It is believed, however, that the whole of the song is from his hand: in Hogg and Motherwell’s edition of Burns, the starting lines are supplied from an olden strain: but some of the old strains in that work are to be regarded with suspicion.]
I.
Go fetch to me a pint o’ wine, An’ fill it in a silver tassie; That I may drink, before I go, A service to my bonnie lassie; The boat rocks at the pier o’ Leith; Fu’ loud the wind blaws frae the ferry; The ship rides by the Berwick-law, And I maun leave my bonnie Mary.
II.
The trumpets sound, the banners fly, The glittering spears are ranked ready; The shouts o’ war are heard afar, The battle closes thick and bloody; It’s not the roar o’ sea or shore Wad make me langer wish to tarry; Nor shouts o’ war that’s heard afar— It’s leaving thee, my bonnie Mary.