Set to Music by R. A. Smith, and also by Mr. John Ross.
LANGSYNE beside the woodlan burn,
Amang the brume sae yellow,
I leant me neath the milk white thorn,
On Nature's mossy pillow ;
A roun my seat the flowers were strew'd,
That frae the wild wood I had pu'd,
To weave mysel a simmer snood,
Tae pleasure my dear fellow.
I twin'd the woodbine roun the rose,
Its richer hues tae mellow,
Green sprigs of fragrant birk I chose,
Tae busk the segg' sae yellow.[1]
The crawflow'r blue, an meadow-pink,
I wove in primrose braided link ;
But little, little did I think
I shoud hae wove the willow. [2]
My bonnie lad was forc'd away,
Tost on the raging billow ;
Perhaps he's faun in bludie war,
Or wreck't on rocky shallow :
Yet, ay I hope for his return,
As roun our wonted haunts I mourn,
And aften by the woodlan burn,
I pu the weepin willow.
This song first appeared in the Glasgow Nightingale of 1806, page 213, with the title of “The Willow.”—Ed.
[1] Compare this verse with the 36th and 37th lines of Burns' Ode for 1805, No. 6.
[2] Wove the willow.—The emblem of mourning for an affianced lover.
[Semple 83]