A CUMBERLAND BALLAD
And auld Robin Forbes has given them a dance!
I put on my speckets to see them a’ prance;
I thought o’ the days when I was but fifteen,
And danc’d wi’ the best, upon Forbes’ Green.
Of a’ things that is, I think thought is maist queer,
It brings that that’s by-past, and sets it down here;
I see Willy as plain as I do this bit lace,
When he took his coat lappet and deeghted his face.
The lasses a’ wondered what Willy could see,
In yen that was dark and hard-featured like me;
And they wonder’d ay mair when they talked o’ my wit,
And slily telt Willy that could’nt be it:
But Willy he laugh’d and he made me his wife,
And wha was mair happy thro’ a’ his lang life?
Its e’en my great comfort, now Willy is gane,
That he often said nea place was like his ane heame.
I mind when I curried my wark to yon stile.
When Willy was dyking, the time to beguile,
lie would fling me a daisy to put i’ my breast,
And I hammer’d my noddle to make out a jest;
But merry or grave, Willy often would tell.
There naen o’ the lave that was like my ain sel;
And he spake what he thought, for I’d hardly a pluck,
When we married, and nobbet ae gown to my back.
When the clock had struck eight, I expected him hame,
And wheyles went to meet him as far as Dumleane;
Of a’ hours it telt, eight was dearest to me;
But now, when it strikes, there’s a tear i’ my e’e.
O, Willy ! dear Willy ! it never can be,
That age, time, or death, can divide thee and me;
For that spot on the earth, that’s aye dearest to me,
Is the turf that has cover’d my Willy frae me.
(Catherine Gilpin)
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Based on Topics: Life Poems, Mind Poems, Time Poems, Death & Dying Poems, Faces Poems, Place Poems, Thought & Thinking Poems, Age Poems, Dancing Poems, Wit PoemsBased on Keywords: slily, willy, cumberland, sel, noddle, curried, nea, yen, forbes, by-past, heame