Robert Burns

The Lass o’ Ballochmyle

‘TWAS even-the dewy fields were green,
  On every blade the pearls hang;
The Zephyrs wanton’d round the bean,
  And bore its fragrant sweets alang:
In every glen the Mavis sang,
  All nature listening seem’d the while:
Except where green-wood echoes rang,
  Amang the braes o’ Ballochmyle.

With careless step I onward stray’d,
  My heart rejoiced in nature’s joy,
When musing in a lonely glade,
  A maiden fair I chanced to spy;
Her look was like the morning’s eye,
  Her hair like nature’s vernal smile;
Perfection whisper’d, passing by,
  Behold the lass o’ Ballochmyle!

Fair is the morn in flowery May,
  And sweet is night in Autumn mild,
When roving thro’ the garden gay,
  Or wandering in the lonely wild:
But Woman, Nature’s darling child!
  There all her charms she does compile;
Ev’n there her other works are foil’d
  By the bonnie lass o’ Ballochmyle.

O had she been a country maid,
  And I the happy country swain,
Tho’ shelter’d in the lowest shed
  That ever rose on Scotland’s plain!
Thro’ weary winter’s wind and rain,
  With joy, with rapture, I would toil;
And nightly to my bosom strain
  The bonnie lass o’ Ballochmyle.

Then pride might climb the slippery steep,
  Where fame and honours lofty shine;
And thirst of gold might tempt the deep,
  Or downward seek the Indian mine:
Give me the cot below the pine,
  To tend the flocks or till the soil,
And every day have joys divine,
  With the bonnie lass o’ Ballochmyle.