[Sent to the Museum by Burns in his own handwriting: part only is thought to be his]
I.
Young Jamie, pride of a’ the plain,
Sae gallant and sae gay a swain;
Thro’ a’ our lasses he did rove,
And reign’d resistless king of love:
But now wi’ sighs and starting tears,
He strays amang the woods and briers;
Or in the glens and rocky caves
His sad complaining dowie raves.
II.
I wha sae late did range and rove,
And chang’d with every moon my love,
I little thought the time was near,
Repentance I should buy sae dear:
The slighted maids my torment see,
And laugh at a’ the pangs I dree;
While she, my cruel, scornfu’ fair,
Forbids me e’er to see her mair!
CLIV.
OUT OVER THE FORTH.
Tune—“Charlie Gordon’s welcome hame.”
[In one of his letters to Cunningham, dated 11th March 1791, Burns quoted the four last lines of this tender and gentle lyric, and inquires how he likes them.]