with critical observations and biographical notices, by Robert Burns

44
Say, charmer, where do thy flocks stray ?
Oh! tell me at noon where they feed
Shall I seek them on sweet windmg Tay,
Or the pleasanter banks of the Tweed ?
I have seen a song, calling itself the original
Tweed Side, and said to have been composed by a
Lord Yester. It consisted of two stanzas^ of Zi)hich
I still recollect the first.
When Maggy and 1 was acquaint,
I carried my noddle fu' hie ;
Nae hntwhite on a' the green plain.
Nor gowdspink sae happy as me :
But I saw her sae fair, -and I lo'ed ;
I wooM, but I came nae great speed
So now I maun wander abroad.
And lay my banes far frae the Tweed.*
* The last stanza runs thus :—Ed.
To Meiggy my love I did tell,
Saut tears did my passion express,
Alas ! for I loo'd her o'erwell,
An' the women loo sic a man less.
Her heart it was frozen and cauld,
Her pride had my ruin decreed ;
Therefore I will wander abroad,
And lay my banes far frae the Tweed.