Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Bliss Carman, et al., eds. The World’s Best Poetry. 1904.

I. Disappointment in Love

The Banks o’ Doon

Robert Burns (1759–1796)

YE banks and braes o’ bonnie Doon,

How can ye bloom sae fresh and fair?

How can ye chant, ye little birds,

And I sae weary, fu’ o’ care?

Thou ’lt break my heart, thou warbling bird,

That wantons through the flowering thorn;

Thou minds me o’ departed joys,

Departed—never to return.

Thou ’lt break my heart, thou bonnie bird,

That sings beside thy mate;

For sae I sat, and sae I sang,

And wistna o’ my fate.

Aft hae I roved by bonnie Doon,

To see the rose and woodbine twine;

And ilka bird sang o’ its luve,

And, fondly, sae did I o’ mine.

Wi’ lightsome heart I pou’d a rose,

Fu’ sweet upon its thorny tree;

And my fause luver stole my rose,

But ah! he left the thorn wi’ me.