HOW LANG AND DREARY IS THE NIGHT.
Tune—“Cauld Kail in Aberdeen.”
[On comparing this lyric, corrected for Thomson, with that in the Museum, it will be seen that the former has more of elegance and order: the latter quite as much nature and truth: but there is less of the new than of the old in both.]
I.
How lang and dreary is the night,
When I am frae my dearie;
I restless lie frae e’en to morn,
Though I were ne’er sae weary.
For oh! her lanely nights are lang;
And oh! her dreams are eerie;
And oh, her widow’d heart is sair,
That’s absent frae her dearie.
II.
When I think on the lightsome days
I spent wi’ thee my dearie;
And now what seas between us roar—
How can I be but eerie?
III.
How slow ye move, ye heavy hours;
The joyless day how dreary!
It was na sae ye glinted by,
When I was wi’ my dearie.
For oh! her lanely nights are lang;
And oh, her dreams are eerie;
And oh, her widow’d heart is sair,
That’s absent frae her dearie.