A Bundle of Ballads [50]
mindis rage lyk a sea;) Thorow slauchtir, thorow blude, (A seamless shrowd weird schaipis for me!)
And to rede aricht my spell, Eerilie sal night wyndis moan, Quhill fleand Hevin and raikand Hell, Ghaist with ghaist maun wandir on.
CASABIANCA.
The boy stood on the burning deck Whence all but he had fled; The flame that lit the battle's wreck Shone round him o'er the dead.
Yet beautiful and bright he stood, As born to rule the storm-- A creature of heroic blood, A proud, though child-like form.
The flames rolled on--he would not go Without his father's word; That father, faint in death below, His voice no longer heard.
He called aloud, "Say, father! say If yet my task is done!" He knew not that the chieftain lay Unconscious of his son.
"Speak, father!" once again he cried, "If I may yet be gone!" And but the booming shots replied, And fast the flames rolled on.
Upon his brow he felt their breath, And in his waving hair, And looked from that lone post of death In still yet brave despair;
And shouted but once more aloud, "My father! must I stay?" While o'er him fast, through sail and shroud, The wreathing fires made way.
They wrapt the ship in splendour wild, They caught the flag on high, And streamed above the gallant child Like banners in the sky.
There came a burst of thunder-sound-- The boy--oh! where was he? Ask of the winds that far around With fragments strewed the sea,--
With mast, and helm, and pennon fair, That well had borne their part:-- But the noblest thing which perished there Was that young faithful heart.
AULD ROBIN GRAY.
FIRST PART.
When the sheep are in the fauld, when the kye's a' at hame, And a' the weary warld to rest are gane, The woes o' my heart fa' in showers frae my e'e, Unkent by my gudeman, wha sleeps sound by me.
Young Jamie lo'ed me weel, and sought me for his bride, But saving a crown he had naething else beside; To mak the crown a pound my Jamie gaed to sea, And the crown and the pound--they were baith for me.
He hadna been gane a twelvemonth and a day When my father brake his arm, and the cow was stown away; My mother she fell sick--my Jamie was at sea-- And auld Robin Gray came a-courting me.
My father couldna work, my mother couldna spin, I toiled day and night, but their bread I couldna win; Auld Rob maintained them baith, and, wi' tears in his e'e, Said, "Jeanie, for their sakes, will ye no marry me?"
My heart it said na, and I looked for Jamie back, But hard blew the winds, and his ship was a wrack; His ship was a wrack--why didna Jamie dee? Or why am I spared to cry, "Woe is me?"
My father urged me sair--my mother didna speak, But she looket in my face till my heart was like to break; They gied him my hand--my heart was in the sea-- And so Robin Gray he was gudeman to me.
I hadna been his wife a week but only four, When, mournfu' as I sat on the stane at my door, I saw my Jamie's ghaist, for I couldna think it he, Till he said, "I'm come hame, love, to marry thee."
Oh! sair, sair did we greet, and mickle say o' a', I gied him ae kiss and bade him gang awa'. I wish that I were dead, but I'm no like to dee, For tho' my heart is broken, I'm young, woe's me!
I gang like a ghaist, and I carena to spin, I darena think on Jamie, for that would be a sin; But I'll do my best a gude wife to be, For oh! Robin Gray he is kind to me.
SECOND PART.
The winter was come, 'twas simmer nae mair, And, trembling, the leaves were fleeing thro' th' air; "O winter," says Jeanie, "we kindly agree, For the sun he looks wae when he shines upon me."
Nae longer she mourned, her tears were a' spent; Despair it was come, and she thought it content-- She thought it content, but her cheek it grew pale, And she bent like a lily broke down by the gale.
Her father and mother observed her decay; "What ails ye, my bairn?" they ofttimes would say; "Ye turn round your wheel, but you come little speed, For feeble's your hand and silly's your thread."
She smiled when she heard them, to
And to rede aricht my spell, Eerilie sal night wyndis moan, Quhill fleand Hevin and raikand Hell, Ghaist with ghaist maun wandir on.
CASABIANCA.
The boy stood on the burning deck Whence all but he had fled; The flame that lit the battle's wreck Shone round him o'er the dead.
Yet beautiful and bright he stood, As born to rule the storm-- A creature of heroic blood, A proud, though child-like form.
The flames rolled on--he would not go Without his father's word; That father, faint in death below, His voice no longer heard.
He called aloud, "Say, father! say If yet my task is done!" He knew not that the chieftain lay Unconscious of his son.
"Speak, father!" once again he cried, "If I may yet be gone!" And but the booming shots replied, And fast the flames rolled on.
Upon his brow he felt their breath, And in his waving hair, And looked from that lone post of death In still yet brave despair;
And shouted but once more aloud, "My father! must I stay?" While o'er him fast, through sail and shroud, The wreathing fires made way.
They wrapt the ship in splendour wild, They caught the flag on high, And streamed above the gallant child Like banners in the sky.
There came a burst of thunder-sound-- The boy--oh! where was he? Ask of the winds that far around With fragments strewed the sea,--
With mast, and helm, and pennon fair, That well had borne their part:-- But the noblest thing which perished there Was that young faithful heart.
AULD ROBIN GRAY.
FIRST PART.
When the sheep are in the fauld, when the kye's a' at hame, And a' the weary warld to rest are gane, The woes o' my heart fa' in showers frae my e'e, Unkent by my gudeman, wha sleeps sound by me.
Young Jamie lo'ed me weel, and sought me for his bride, But saving a crown he had naething else beside; To mak the crown a pound my Jamie gaed to sea, And the crown and the pound--they were baith for me.
He hadna been gane a twelvemonth and a day When my father brake his arm, and the cow was stown away; My mother she fell sick--my Jamie was at sea-- And auld Robin Gray came a-courting me.
My father couldna work, my mother couldna spin, I toiled day and night, but their bread I couldna win; Auld Rob maintained them baith, and, wi' tears in his e'e, Said, "Jeanie, for their sakes, will ye no marry me?"
My heart it said na, and I looked for Jamie back, But hard blew the winds, and his ship was a wrack; His ship was a wrack--why didna Jamie dee? Or why am I spared to cry, "Woe is me?"
My father urged me sair--my mother didna speak, But she looket in my face till my heart was like to break; They gied him my hand--my heart was in the sea-- And so Robin Gray he was gudeman to me.
I hadna been his wife a week but only four, When, mournfu' as I sat on the stane at my door, I saw my Jamie's ghaist, for I couldna think it he, Till he said, "I'm come hame, love, to marry thee."
Oh! sair, sair did we greet, and mickle say o' a', I gied him ae kiss and bade him gang awa'. I wish that I were dead, but I'm no like to dee, For tho' my heart is broken, I'm young, woe's me!
I gang like a ghaist, and I carena to spin, I darena think on Jamie, for that would be a sin; But I'll do my best a gude wife to be, For oh! Robin Gray he is kind to me.
SECOND PART.
The winter was come, 'twas simmer nae mair, And, trembling, the leaves were fleeing thro' th' air; "O winter," says Jeanie, "we kindly agree, For the sun he looks wae when he shines upon me."
Nae longer she mourned, her tears were a' spent; Despair it was come, and she thought it content-- She thought it content, but her cheek it grew pale, And she bent like a lily broke down by the gale.
Her father and mother observed her decay; "What ails ye, my bairn?" they ofttimes would say; "Ye turn round your wheel, but you come little speed, For feeble's your hand and silly's your thread."
She smiled when she heard them, to