Robert Burns

Evan Banks

SLOW spreads the gloom my soul desire;
The sun from India’s shore retires:
To Evan banks with temp’rate ray,
Home of my youth, he leads the day.

Oh banks to me for ever dear!
Oh stream, whose murmurs still I hear!
All, all my hopes of bliss reside
Where Evan mingles with the Clyde.

And she, in simple beauty drest,
Whose image lives within my breast;
Who trembling heard my parting sigh,
And long pursued me with her eye:

Does she, with heart unchang’d as mine,
Oft in the vocal bowers recline?
Or, where yon grot o’erhangs the tide,
Muse while the Evan seeks the Clyde?

Ye lofty banks that Evan bound,
Ye lavish woods that wave around,
And o’er the stream your shadows throw,
Which sweetly winds so far below;

What secret charm to mem’ry brings
All that on Evan’s border springs!
Sweet banks! ye bloom by Mary’s side:
Blest stream! she views thee haste to Clyde.

Can all the wealth of India’s coast
Atone fore years in absence lost!
Return, ye moments of delight,
With richer treasures bless my sight!

Swift from this desert let me part,
And fly to meet a kindred heart!
No more may aught my steps divide
From that dear stream which flows to Clyde!