THE LOVER’S MORNING SALUTE TO HIS MISTRESS.
Tune—“Deil tak the Wars.”
[Burns has, in one of his letters, partly intimated that this morning salutation to Chloris was occasioned by sitting till the dawn at the punch-bowl, and walking past her window on his way home.]
I.
Sleep’st thou, or wak’st thou, fairest creature?
Rosy Morn now lifts his eye,
Numbering ilka bud which nature
Waters wi’ the tears o’ joy:
Now through the leafy woods,
And by the reeking floods,
Wild nature’s tenants freely, gladly stray;
The lintwhite in his bower
Chants o’er the breathing flower;
The lav’rock to the sky
Ascends wi’ sangs o’ joy,
While the sun and thou arise to bless the day.
II.
Phœbus gilding the brow o’ morning,
Banishes ilk darksome shade,
Nature gladdening and adorning;
Such to me my lovely maid.
When absent frae my fair,
The murky shades o’ care
With starless gloom o’ercast my sullen sky;
But when, in beauty’s light,
She meets my ravish’d sight,
When thro’ my very heart
Her beaming glories dart—
’Tis then I wake to life, to light, and joy.