CCLVII.
O BONNIE WAS YON ROSY BRIER.
[To Jean Lorimer, the heroine of this song, Burns presented a copy of the last edition of his poems, that of 1793, with a dedicatory inscription, in which he moralizes upon her youth, her beauty, and steadfast friendship, and signs himself Coila.]
I.
O Bonnie was yon rosy brier,
That blooms sae far frae haunt o’ man,
And bonnie she, and ah, how dear!
It shaded frae the e’enin sun.
II.
Yon rosebuds in the morning dew
How pure, amang the leaves sae green:
But purer was the lover’s vow
They witness’d in their shade yestreen.
III.
All in its rude and prickly bower,
That crimson rose, how sweet and fair!
But love is far a sweeter flower
Amid life’s thorny path o’ care.