How long have I liv’d, but how much liv’d in vain!
How little of life’s scanty span may remain!
What aspects, old Time, in his progress, has worn!
What ties cruel Fate in my bosom has torn!
How foolish, or worse, till our summit is gain’d!
And downward, how weaken’d, how darken’d, how pain’d!
Life is not worth having with all it can give—
For something beyond it poor man sure must live.
LXXIV.
THE CAPTAIN’S LADY.
Tune—“O mount and go.”
[Part of this song belongs to an old maritime strain, with the same title: it was communicated, along with many other songs, made or amended by Burns, to the Musical Museum.]
CHORUS.
O mount and go,
Mount and make you ready;
O mount and go,
And be the Captain’s Lady.
I.
When the drums do beat,
And the cannons rattle,
Thou shall sit in state,
And see thy love in battle.