A thief sae pawkie is my Jean,
To steal a blink, by a’ unseen;
But gleg as light are lovers’ een,
When kind love is in the e’e.
IV.
It may escape the courtly sparks,
It may escape the learned clerks;
But weel the watching lover marks
The kind love that’s in her e’e.
O this is no my ain lassie,
Fair tho’ the lassie be;
O weel ken I my ain lassie,
Kind love is in her e’e.
CCLVI.
NOW SPRING HAS CLAD THE
GROVE IN GREEN.
TO MR. CUNNINGHAM.
[Composed in reference to a love disappointment of the poet’s friend, Alexander Cunningham, which also occasioned the song beginning,
“Had I a cave on some wild distant shore.”]