Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Scotland: Vols. VI–VIII. 1876–79.

Tealing

The Bonny Bowers o’ Tealing

By George W. Donald (b. 1820)

THEY tell me in yon sunny land

The palm-tree shades the mountain,

An’ they tell me o’ their myrtle groves,

And the crystal-gushing fountain;

They tell me o’ the clustering vine

The flowery path concealing;

But they cudna’ please this heart o’ mine

Like the bonnie bowers o’ Tealing.

They kenna’ o’ the scented thorn,

The birk and broom sae yellow;

They kenna’ o’ the mavis’ sang,

Or the blackbird’s note sae mellow;

They kenna o’ the zephyrs mild,

Or the balmy breeze so healing,

That softly shakes the dewy flowers

’Mang the bonnie bowers o’ Tealing.

I ’ve wandered far, I ’ve wandered wide,

On Scotia’s rugged bosom;

I ’ve pu’d the rose in a’ its pride,

An’ the lily’s gowden blossom;

But the fairest flower that ere I saw

Was by the burnie, stealing

And murmuring through its gow’ny banks,

’Mang the bonny bowers o’ Tealing.