Her face is fair, her heart is true;
As spotless as she’s bonnie, O;
The opening gowan, wat wi’ dew, daisy
Nae purer is than Nannie O.
In ‘The Birks [birches] of Aberfeldy’ he speaks to his lover of ‘Summer blinking on flowery braes’ and ‘Playing o’er the crystal streamlets;’ and the ‘Blythe singing o’ the little birdies’ and ‘The braes o’erhung wi’ fragrant woods’ and ‘The hoary cliffs crowned wi’ flowers;’ and ‘The streamlet pouring over a waterfall.’ Love and Nature were united in his heart.
In ‘Blythe was She’ he describes the lady by saying she was like beautiful things:
Her looks were like a flower in May.
Her smile was like a simmer morn;
Her bonnie face it was as meek
As any lamb upon a lea;
and the ‘ev’ning sun.’
Her step was
As light’s a bird upon a thorn.
He wrote ‘O’ a’ the Airts the Wind can Blaw’ about Jean Armour after they were married, while he was building their home on Ellisland. He says in this exquisite song:
By day and night my fancy’s flight
Is ever wi’ my Jean.
I see her in the dewy flowers,
I see her sweet and fair;
I hear her in the tunefu’ birds,
I hear her charm the air:
There’s not a bonnie flower that springs
By fountain, shaw, or green; woodland
There’s not a bonnie bird that sings,
But minds me o’ my Jean.
To Jean he wrote again: