The Complete Works of Robert Burns
Chapter 140 : CLXXIV.GLOOMY DECEMBER.Tune--"_Wandering Willie._"[These verses were, it is

CLXXIV.

GLOOMY DECEMBER.

Tune--"_Wandering Willie._"

[These verses were, it is said, inspired by Clarinda, and must be taken as a record of his feelings at parting with one dear to him in the last moment of existence--the Mrs. Mac of many a toast, both in serious and festive hours.]

I.

Ance mair I hail thee, thou gloomy December!

Ance mair I hail thee wi' sorrow and care: Sad was the parting thou makes me remember, Parting wi' Nancy, oh! ne'er to meet mair.

Fond lovers' parting is sweet painful pleasure, Hope beaming mild on the soft parting hour; But the dire feeling, O farewell for ever!

Is anguish unmingled, and agony pure.

II.

Wild as the winter now tearing the forest, 'Till the last leaf o' the summer is flown, Such is the tempest has shaken my bosom, Since my last hope and last comfort is gone!

Still as I hail thee, thou gloomy December, Still shall I hail thee wi' sorrow and care; For sad was the parting thou makes me remember, Parting wi' Nancy, oh! ne'er to meet mair.

CLXXV.

MY LADY'S GOWN, THERE'S GAIRS UPON'T.

Tune--"_Gregg's Pipes._"

[Most of this song is from the pen of Burns: he corrected the improprieties, and infused some of his own lyric genius into the old strain, and printed the result in the Museum.]

I.

My lady's gown, there's gairs upon't, And gowden flowers sae rare upon't; But Jenny's jimps and jirkinet, My lord thinks meikle mair upon't.

My lord a-hunting he is gane, But hounds or hawks wi' him are nane; By Colin's cottage lies his game, If Colin's Jenny be at hame.

II.

My lady's white, my lady's red, And kith and kin o' Ca.s.sillis' blude; But her ten-pund lands o' tocher guid Were a' the charms his lords.h.i.+p lo'ed.

III.

Out o'er yon muir, out o'er yon moss, Whare gor-c.o.c.ks thro' the heather pa.s.s, There wons auld Colin's bonnie la.s.s, A lily in a wilderness.

IV.

Sae sweetly move her genty limbs, Like music notes o' lovers' hymns: The diamond dew is her een sae blue, Where laughing love sae wanton swims.

V.

My lady's d.i.n.k, my lady's drest, The flower and fancy o' the west; But the la.s.sie that a man lo'es best, O that's the la.s.s to make him blest.

My lady's gown, there's gairs upon't, And gowden flowers sae rare upon't; But Jenny's jimps and jirkinet, My lord thinks meikle mair upon't.

CLXXVI.

AMANG THE TREES.

Tune--"_The King of France, he rade a race._"

[Burns wrote these verses in scorn of those, and they are many, who prefer

"The capon craws and queer ha ha's!"

of emasculated Italy to the original and delicious airs, Highland and Lowland, of old Caledonia: the song is a fragment--the more's the pity.]

I.

Amang the trees, where humming bees At buds and flowers were hinging, O, Auld Caledon drew out her drone, And to her pipe was singing, O; 'Twas pibroch, sang, strathspey, or reels, She dirl'd them aff fu' clearly, O, When there cam a yell o' foreign squeels, That dang her tapsalteerie, O.

II.

Their capon craws and queer ha ha's, They made our lugs grow eerie, O; The hungry bike did sc.r.a.pe and pike, 'Till we were wae and weary, O; But a royal ghaist wha ance was cas'd A prisoner aughteen year awa, He fir'd a fiddler in the north That dang them tapsalteerie, O.

CLXXVII.

THE GOWDEN LOCKS OF ANNA.

Tune--"_Banks of Banna._"

["Anne with the golden locks," one of the attendant maidens in Burns's Howff, in Dumfries, was very fair and very tractable, and, as may be surmised from the song, had other pretty ways to render herself agreeable to the customers than the serving of wine. Burns recommended this song to Thomson; and one of his editors makes him say, "I think this is one of the best love-songs I ever composed," but these are not the words of Burns; this contradiction is made openly, lest it should be thought that the bard had the bad taste to prefer this strain to dozens of others more simple, more impa.s.sioned, and more natural.]

I.