with critical observations and biographical notices, by Robert Burns

6S
Lasses a' lilting before the break o' day,
But now I hear moaning
On ilka green loaning,*
Since our brave forresters-f- are a' wed away.
At buchtsj in the morning
Nae blythe lads are scorning ; §
The lasses are lonely, dowie and wae:
Nae daffin, nae gabbing,
But sighing and sabbing.
Ilk ane lifts her leglin,|| and hies her away.
At e'en in the gloming
Nae swankies** are roaming,
* Loaning, an opening between fields of corn, left unculti-
vated for the sake of driving cattle to the homestead from the
distant parts of the farm.
t Forresters, a general name, poetically here assumed for the
men of the country.
$ BuchtSj a small pen, usually put up in the corner of the
sheep-fold into which the ewes were driven when they were to
be milked.
§ Scorning is almost exclusively applied among the country
people, to denote that kind of merriment occasioned by teasing
a young girl about her lover.
II
Leglin, a kind of bucket, with one of the staves projecting
above the rest as a handle.
** SwankieSf a cant term for young lads, half-grown men.