The Scottish songs - National Library of Scotland

632
Ye violets, that first appear.
By your purple mantles known,
Like proud virgins of the year,
As if the Spring were all your own,
What are ye when the rose is blown ?
Ye wandering chanters of the wood,
That fill the air with nature's lays.
Making your feelings understood
In accents weak—What is your praise,
When Philomel her voice shall raise ?
You glancing jewels of the east.
Whose estimation fancies raise,
Pearls, rubies, sapphires, and the rest
Of glittering gems, what is your praise,
When the bright diamond shows his rays ?
But ah, poor light, gem, voice, and sound,
What are ye if my Mary shine ?
Moon, diamond, flowers, and Philomel,
Light, lustre, scent, and music tine.
And yield to merit more divine.
The rose and lily, the whole spring.
Unto her breath for sweetness speed
The diamond darkens in the ring
When she appears, the moon looks dead,
As when Sol lifts his radiant head.*
* Ramsay prints a version of this song, slightly different from the above,
which he states himself to have copied from an old manuscript collection
by an Aberdeenshire gentleman.
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