| |
| THY braes were bonny, Yarrow stream! | |
| When first on them I met my lover; | |
| Thy braes how dreary, Yarrow stream! | |
| When now thy waves his body cover. | |
| |
| Forever now, O Yarrow stream! | 5 |
| Thou art to me a stream of sorrow; | |
| For never on thy banks shall I | |
| Behold my love, the flower of Yarrow. | |
| |
| He promised me a milk-white steed, | |
| To bear me to his father’s bowers; | 10 |
| He promised me a little page, | |
| To ’squire me to his father’s towers; | |
| He promised me a wedding-ring,— | |
| The wedding-day was fixed to-morrow; | |
| Now he is wedded to his grave, | 15 |
| Alas, his watery grave, in Yarrow! | |
| |
| Sweet were his words when last we met; | |
| My passion I as freely told him! | |
| Clasped in his arms, I little thought | |
| That I should nevermore behold him! | 20 |
| Scarce was he gone, I saw his ghost; | |
| It vanished with a shriek of sorrow; | |
| Thrice did the water-wraith ascend, | |
| And gave a doleful groan through Yarrow. | |
| |
| His mother from the window looked | 25 |
| With all the longing of a mother; | |
| His little sister weeping walked | |
| The greenwood path to meet her brother. | |
| They sought him east, they sought him west, | |
| They sought him all the forest thorough, | 30 |
| They only saw the cloud of night, | |
| They only heard the roar of Yarrow! | |
| |
| No longer from thy window look, | |
| Thou hast no son, thou tender mother! | |
| No longer walk, thou lovely maid; | 35 |
| Alas, thou hast no more a brother! | |
| No longer seek him east or west, | |
| And search no more the forest thorough; | |
| For, wandering in the night so dark, | |
| He fell a lifeless corse in Yarrow. | 40 |
| |
| The tear shall never leave my cheek, | |
| No other youth shall be my marrow; | |
| I ’ll seek thy body in the stream, | |
| And then with thee I ’ll sleep in Yarrow. | |
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