STAY, MY CHARMER, CAN YOU LEAVE

ME?

Tune, 'An Gille dubh ciar dhubh,'

Sray, my charmer, can you leave me?
Cruel, cruel to deceive me!
Well you know how much you grieve me ;

Cruel charmer, can you go?
Cruel charmer, can you go?

By my love so ill requited ;
By the faith you fondly plighted;
By the pangs of lovers slighted;

Do not, do not leave me so !
Do not, do not leave me so !

STRATHALLAN'S LAMENT.

Thickest night o’erhang my dwelling!

Howling tempests o'er me rave ! Turbid torrents, wintry swelling,

Still surround my lonely cave !

Crystal streamlets gently flowing,

Busy haunts of base mankind, Western breezes softly blowing,

Suit not my distracted mind.

In the cause of right engaged,

Wrongs injurious to redress,

Honour's war we strongly waged,

But the heavens deny'd success.

Ruin's wheel has driven o'er us,

Not a hope that dare attend, The wide world is all before us

But a world without a friend!

a

THE YOUNG HIGHLAND ROVER,

Tune, Morag.'

Loon blaw the frosty breezes,

The snaws the mountains cover ; Like winter on me seizes,

Since my young Highland Rover

Far wanders nations over. Where're he go, where'er he stray,

May Heaven be his warden : Return him safe to fair Strathspey,

And bonnie Castle-Gordon!

The trees now naked groaning,

Shall soon wi' leaves be hinging, The birdies dowie moaning,

Shall a' be blithly singing,

And every flower be springing,
Sae I'll rejoice the lee-lang day,

When by his mighty warden
My youth's return'd to fair Strathspey,
And bonnie Castle-Gordon.

RAVING WINDS AROUND HER BLOW:

ING.

T'une, 'M'Grigor of Rero's Lament.'

Raying winds around her blowing,
Yellow leaves the woodlands strowing,
By a river hoarsely roaring,
Isabella stray'd deploring.
* Farewell, hours that late did measure
•Sunshine days of joy and pleasure;
• Hail, thou gloomy night of sorrow,
*Cheerless night that knows no morrow.

“O'er the past too fondly wandering,
« On the hopeless future pondering,
* Chilly grief my life-blood freezes,

Fell despair my fancy seizes.
*Life, thou soul of every blessing,
* Load to misery most distressing,
• O how gladly I'd resign thee,
* And to dark oblivion join thee!'

MUSING ON THE ROARING OCEAN.

Tune, 'Druimion dubh.'

Musing on the roaring ocean,

Which divides my love and me; Wearying Heaven in warm devotion,

For his weal where'er he be.

Hope and fear's alternate billow

Yielding late to nature's law; Whisp’ring spirits round my pillow

Talk of him that's far awa.

Ye whom sorrow never wounded,

Ye who never shed a tear, Care-untroubled, joy-surrounded,

Gaudy day to you is dear.

Gentle night, do thou befriend me;

Downy sleep, the curtain draw; Spirits kind, again attend me,

Talk of him that's far awa!

BLITHE WAS SHE.

Blithe, blithe and merry was she,

Blithe was she but and ben :
Blithe by the banks of Ern,

And blithe in Glenturit glen.

By Oughtertyre grows the aik,

On Yarrow banks, the birken shaw;
But Phemie was a bonnier lass
Than braes o' Yarrow ever saw.

Blithe, &c.

Her looks were like a flower in May,

Her smile was like a simmer morn ; She tripped by the banks of Ern, As light's a bird upon a thorn.

Blithe, &c.

Her bonnie face it was as meek

As ony lamb upon a lee;
The evening sun was ne'er sae sweet
As was the blink o' Phemie's e'e.

Blithe, &c.

The Highland hills I've wander'd wide,

And o’er the Lowlands I hae been ;
But Phemie was the blithest lass
That ever trod the dewy green.

Blithe, &c.

A ROSE-BUD BY MY EARLY WALK.

A ROSE-BUD by my early walk,
Adown a corn-enclosed bawk,
Sae gently bent its thorny stalk,

All on a dewy morning.

Ere twice the shades o' dawn are fled,
In a' its crimson glory spread,
And drooping rich the dewy head,

It scents the early morning.

Within the bush, her covert nest
A little linnet fondly prest,
The dew sat chilly on her breast

Sae early in the morning.

She soon shall see her tender brood,
The pride, the pleasure o' the wood,
Amang the fresh green leaves bedew'd,

Awake the early morning.