MY BONNIE MARY.
Tune—“Go fetch to me a pint o’ wine.”
[Concerning this fine song, Burns in his notes says, “This air is Oswald’s: the first half-stanza of the song is old, the rest is mine.” It is believed, however, that the whole of the song is from his hand: in Hogg and Motherwell’s edition of Burns, the starting lines are supplied from an olden strain: but some of the old strains in that work are to be regarded with suspicion.]
I.
Go fetch to me a pint o’ wine,
An’ fill it in a silver tassie;
That I may drink, before I go,
A service to my bonnie lassie;
The boat rocks at the pier o’ Leith;
Fu’ loud the wind blaws frae the ferry;
The ship rides by the Berwick-law,
And I maun leave my bonnie Mary.
II.
The trumpets sound, the banners fly,
The glittering spears are ranked ready;
The shouts o’ war are heard afar,
The battle closes thick and bloody;
It’s not the roar o’ sea or shore
Wad make me langer wish to tarry;
Nor shouts o’ war that’s heard afar—
It’s leaving thee, my bonnie Mary.