No More Learning

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IX.

THE MAUCHLINE LADY.

Tune--"_I had a horse, I had nae mair. _"

[The Mauchline lady who won the poet's heart was Jean Armour: she
loved to relate how the bard made her acquaintance: his dog run across
some linen webs which she was bleaching among Mauchline gowans, and he
apologized so handsomely that she took another look at him. To this
interview the world owes some of our most impassioned strains. ]


When first I came to Stewart Kyle,
My mind it was nae steady;
Where'er I gaed, where'er I rade,
A mistress still I had ay:
But when I came roun' by Mauchline town,
Not dreadin' any body,
My heart was caught before I thought,
And by a Mauchline lady.

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X.

THE HIGHLAND LASSIE.

Tune--"_The deuks dang o'er my daddy_! "

["The Highland Lassie" was Mary Campbell, whose too early death the
poet sung in strains that will endure while the language lasts. "She
was," says Burns, "a warm-hearted, charming young creature as ever
blessed a man with generous love. "]


I.

Nae gentle dames, tho' e'er sae fair,
Shall ever be my muse's care:
Their titles a' are empty show;
Gie me my Highland lassie, O.
Within the glen sae bushy, O,
Aboon the plains sae rushy, O,
I set me down wi' right good-will,
To sing my Highland lassie, O.

II.
Oh, were yon hills and valleys mine,
Yon palace and yon gardens fine,
The world then the love should know
I bear my Highland lassie, O.

III.

But fickle fortune frowns on me,
And I maun cross the raging sea;
But while my crimson currents flow,
I'll love my Highland lassie, O.

IV.

Altho' thro' foreign climes I range,
I know her heart will never change,
For her bosom burns with honour's glow,
My faithful Highland lassie, O.

V.

For her I'll dare the billows' roar,
For her I'll trace a distant shore,
That Indian wealth may lustre throw
Around my Highland lassie, O.

VI.

She has my heart, she has my hand,
by sacred truth and honour's band!
'Till the mortal stroke shall lay me low,
I'm thine, my Highland lassie, O.
Farewell the glen sae bushy, O!
Farewell the plain sae rushy, O!
To other lands I now must go,
To sing my Highland lassie, O.

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XI.

PEGGY.

[The heroine of this song is said to have been "Montgomery's Peggy.