C.D. Warner, et al., comp. The Library of the World’s Best Literature.
An Anthology in Thirty Volumes. 1917.
When the Kye Comes Hame
By James Hogg (1770–1835)
C
That whistle through the glen
I’ll tell ye of a secret
That courtiers dinna ken:
What is the greatest bliss
That the tongue o’ man can name?
’Tis to woo a bonny lassie
When the kye comes hame,
When the kye comes hame,
When the kye comes hame,
’Tween the gloaming and the mirk,
When the kye comes hame.
Nor canopy of state,
’Tis not on couch of velvet,
Nor arbor of the great—
’Tis beneath the spreading birk,
In the glen without the name,
Wi’ a bonny, bonny lassie,
When the kye comes hame.
For the mate he lo’es to see,
And on the topmost bough
Oh! a happy bird is he!
Where he pours his melting ditty
And love is a’ the theme,
And he’ll woo his bonny lassie
When the kye comes hame.
And the daisy turns a pea,
And the bonny luken gowan
Has fauldit up her ee,
Then the laverock, frae the blue lift,
Drops down and thinks nae shame
To woo his bonny lassie
When the kye comes hame.
That lingers on the hill:
His ewes are in the fauld,
An’ his lambs are lying still,
Yet he downa gang to bed,
For his heart is in a flame,
To meet his bonny lassie
When the kye comes hame.
Rises high in the breast,
An’ the little wee bit starn
Rises red in the east,
Oh, there’s a joy sae dear
That the heart can hardly frame,
Wi’ a bonny, bonny lassie
When the kye comes hame.
In this love without alloy,
Oh wha wad prove a traitor
To Nature’s dearest joy?
Or wha wad choose a crown,
Wi’ its perils and its fame,
And miss his bonnie lassie
When the kye comes hame?