THE BLUE-EYED LASSIE
Robert Burns
I gaed a waefu' gate yestreen,
A gate I fear I'll dearly rue:
I gat my death frae twa sweet een,
Twa lovely een o' bonie blue!
'Twas not her golden ringlets bright,
Her lips like roses wat wi' dew,
Her heaving bosom lily-white:
It was her een sae bonie blue!
She talk'd, she smil'd, my heart she
wyl'd,
She charm'd my soul I wist na how;
And ay the stound, the deadly wound,
Cam frae her een sae bonie blue.
But 'spare to speak, and spare to speed' -
She'll aiblins listen to my vow:
Should she refuse, I'll lay my dead
To her twa een sae bonie blue!
Footnote: A further mini series of songs by
our National Bard, Robert Burns, to celebrate the 219th
anniversary of the publication of Poems, chiefly in the Scottish
Dialect on 31 July 1786. Jeanie Jeffray, whom the poet
immortalised in this song, was the daughter of the Rev Andrew
Jeffray, minister of Lochmaben in Dumfriesshire. During his
travels on excise duty Robert Burns was a frequent visitor at
the manse and young Jeanie endeared herself to the Bard by her
artless solicitude for his comfort the moment he arrived. For
this and her agreeable personality he presented her with this
delightful song. Jeanie Jeffray married William Renwick and the
couple settled in New York where he was a successful merchant.
She died in New York in October 1850.
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