Ae fond kiss, and then we sever;
Ae farewell, and then for ever!
Deep in heart-wrung tears I'll pledge thee,
Warring sighs and groans I'll wage thee.
Who shall say that Fortune grieves him,
While the star of hope she leaves him?
Me, nae cheerful twinkle lights me;
Dark despair around benights me.
I'll ne'er blame my partial fancy,
Naething could resist my Nancy:
But to see her was to love her;
Love but her, and love for ever.
Had we never lov'd sae kindly,
Had we never lov'd sae blindly,
Never met or never parted,
We had ne'er been broken-hearted.
Fare-thee-weel, thou first and fairest!
Fare-thee-weel, thou best and dearest!
Thine be ilka joy and treasure,
Peace, Enjoyment, Love and Pleasure!
Ae fond kiss, and then we sever!
Ae farewell, alas, for ever!
Deep in heart-wrung tears I'll pledge thee,
Warring sighs and groans I'll wage thee.
"Of Brownyis and of Bogillis full is this Buke." GAWIN DOUGLAS.
When chapman billies1 leave the street,
And drouthy neibors, neibors meet;
As market days are wearing late,
And folk begin to tak the gate,3
While we sit bousing at the nappy,*
An' getting fous and unco happy,
We think na on the lang Scots miles,"
The mosses, waters, slaps, and stiles,
That lie between us and our hame,
Where sits our sulky, sullen dame,
Gathering her brows like gathering storm,
Nursing her wrath to keep it warm.
This truth fand honest TAM O' SHANTER,
As he frae Ayr ae night did canter:
(Auld Ayr, wham ne'er a town surpasses,
For honest men and bonie lasses).
O Tam! had'st thou but been sae wise,
As ta'en thy ain wife Kate's advice!
She tauld thee weel thou wast a skellum;8
A blethering, blustering, drunken blellum;
That frae November till October,
Ae market-day thou wasna sober;
That ilka melder 10 wi' the Miller,
Thou sat as lang as thou had siller;
That ev'ry naig was ca'd" a shoe on
The Smith and thee gat roarin fou on;
That at the Lord's house, ev'n on Sunday,
Thou drank wi' Kirkton Jean 12 till Monday;
She prophesied that late or soon,
Thou wad be found deep drown'd in Doon, 30
Or catch'd wi' warlocksis i' the mirk,1
By Alloway's auld haunted kirk.
Ah, gentle dames! it gars me greet, 15
To think how mony counsels sweet,
How mony lengthen'd sage advices,
The husband frae the wife despises!
But to our tale:-Ae market night,
Tam had got planted unco right,
Fast by an ingle, 16 bleezing finely,
Wi' reaming swats, that drank divinely;
And at his elbow, Souter" Johnie,
His ancient, trusty, drouthy crony:
Tam lo'ed him like a very brither;
They had been fou for weeks thegither.
Whiles crooning o'er some auld Scots sonnet,
Whiles glow'rin round wi' prudent cares,
Lest bogles22 catch him unawares;
1 Pedlar fellows, pedlars. Road. Ale, especially strong ale. The Scotch mile was several hundred yards longer than the English mile.
7 Gaps in a hedge or fence. Blatherskite, noisy talker.
10 i. e.. Every time he took meal to be ground. Melder= the amount of meal ground at one time. 1. e., every horse that was shod. ca a shoe to drive, or nail on, a shoe.
Kirk-Alloway was drawing nigh,
Where ghaists and houlets23 nightly cry.
By this time he was cross the ford, Where in the snaw the chapman smoor'd;24 90 And past the birks25 and meikle stane, Where drunken Charlie brak's neck-bane; And thro' the whins, 26 and by the cairn," Where hunters fand the murder'd bairn; And near the thorn, aboon the well, Where Mungo's mither hang'd hersel'. Before him Doon pours all his floods; The doubling storin roars thro' the woods, The lightnings flash from pole to pole, Near and more near the thunders roll, When, glimmering thro' the groaning trees, Kirk-Alloway seem'd in a bleeze, Thro' ilka bore28 the beams were glancing, And loud resounded mirth and dancing.
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