LXXVII.
Reading edition
O WERE I ON PARNASSUS HILL.
Tune—“My love is lost to me.”
[The poet welcomed with this exquisite song his wife to Nithsdale: the air is one of Oswald’s.]
I.
O, were I on Parnassus’ hill! Or had of Helicon my fill; That I might catch poetic skill, To sing how dear I love thee. But Nith maun be my Muse’s well; My Muse maun be thy bonnie sel’: On Corsincon I’ll glow’r and spell, And write how dear I love thee.
II.
Then come, sweet Muse, inspire my lay! For a’ the lee-lang simmer’s day I coudna sing, I coudna say, How much, how dear, I love thee. I see thee dancing o’er the green, Thy waist sae jimp, thy limbs sae clean, Thy tempting lips, thy roguish een— By heaven and earth I love thee!
III.
By night, by day, a-field, at hame, The thoughts o’ thee my breast inflame; And aye I muse and sing thy name— I only live to love thee. Tho’ I were doom’d to wander on Beyond the sea, beyond the sun, Till my last weary sand was run; Till then—and then I love thee.