C. How Can I Be Blythe and Glad?

Tune—“The bonnie lad that’s far awa.”

[This lamentation was written, it is said, in allusion to the sufferings of Jean Armour, when her correspondence with Burns was discovered by her family.]

I.

O how can I be blythe and glad,
Or how can I gang brisk and braw,
When the bonnie lad that I lo’e best
Is o’er the hills and far awa?
When the bonnie lad that I lo’e best
Is o’er the hills and far awa.

II.

It’s no the frosty winter wind,
It’s no the driving drift and snaw;
But ay the tear comes in my e’e,
To think on him that’s far awa.
But ay the tear comes in my e’e,
To think on him that’s far awa.

III.

My father pat me frae his door,
My friends they line disown’d me a’,
But I hae ane will tak’ my part,
The bonnie lad that’s far awa.
But I hae ane will tak’ my part,
The bonnie lad that’s far awa.

IV.

A pair o’ gloves he gae to me,
And silken snoods he gae me twa;
And I will wear them for his sake,
The bonnie lad that’s far awa.
And I will wear them for his sake,
The bonnie lad that’s far awa.

V.

O weary Winter soon will pass,
And spring will cleed the birken shaw;
And my young babie will be born,
And he’ll be hame that’s far awa.
And my young babie will be born,
And he’ll be hame that’s far awa.