Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry.
Volume I. Of Home: of Friendship. 1904. | | | | Poems of Home: V. The Home | | The Happy Mother | | Alexander Laing (1787–1857) |
| | | AN’ O! may I never live single again, | |
| I wish I may never live single again; | |
| I hae a gudeman, an’ a hame o’ my ain, | |
| An’ O! may I never live single again. | |
| I ’ve twa bonnie bairnies, the fairest of a’, | 5 |
| They cheer up my heart when their daddie’s awa’; | |
| I ’ve one at my foot, and I ’ve one at my knee; | |
| An’ fondly they look, an’ say “Mammie” to me. | |
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| At gloamin’ their daddie comes in frae the plough, | |
| The blink in his e’e, an’ the smile on his brow, | 10 |
| Says, “How are ye, lassie, O, how are ye a’, | |
| An’ how ’s the wee bodies sin’ I gaed awa’?” | |
| He sings i’ the e’ening fu’ cheery an’ gay, | |
| He tells o’ the toil and the news o’ the day; | |
| The twa bonnie lammies he tak’s on his knee, | 15 |
| An’ blinks o’er the ingle fu’ couthie to me. | |
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| O happy ’s the father that ’s happy at hame, | |
| An’ blythe is the mither that ’s blythe o’ the name, | |
| The cares o’ the warld they fear na’ to dree— | |
| The warld is naething to Johnny an’ me. | 20 |
| Though crosses will mingle wi’ mitherly cares, | |
| Awa’, bonnie lassies—awa’ wi’ your fears; | |
| Gin ye get a laddie that ’s loving and fain, | |
| Ye ’ll wish ye may never live single again. | | | | |
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