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I
BY Arthur’s Dale as late I went | |
| I heard a heavy moan; | |
| I heard a ladie lamenting sair, | |
| And ay she cried ‘Ohone! | |
| |
II
‘Ohone, alas! what shall I do, | 5 |
| Tormented night and day! | |
| I never loved a love but ane, | |
| And now he ’s gone away. | |
| |
III
‘But I will do for my true-love | |
| What ladies wou’d think sair; | 10 |
| For seven year shall come and go | |
| Ere a kaim gang in my hair. | |
| |
IV
‘There shall neither a shoe gang on my foot, | |
| Nor a kaim gang in my hair, | |
| Nor e’er a coal nor candle-light | 15 |
| Shine in my bower nae mair.’ | |
| |
V
She thought her love had been on the sea, | |
| Fast sailing to Bee Ho’m; | |
| But he was in a quiet cham’er, | |
| Hearing his ladie’s moan. | 20 |
| |
VI
‘Be husht, be husht, my ladie dear, | |
| I pray thee mourn not so; | |
| For I am deep sworn on a book | |
| To Bee Ho’m for to go.’ | |
| |
VII
She has gien him a chain of the beaten gowd, | 25 |
| And a ring with a ruby stone: | |
| ‘As lang as this chain your body binds, | |
| Your blude can never be drawn. | |
| |
VIII
‘But gin this ring shou’d fade or fail, | |
| Or the stone shou’d change its hue, | 30 |
| Be sure your love is dead and gone, | |
| Or she has proved untrue.’ | |
| |
IX
He had no been at Bonny Bee Ho’m | |
| A twelve month and a day, | |
| Till, looking on his gay gowd ring, | 35 |
| The stone grew dark and gray. | |
| |
X
‘O ye take my riches to Bee Ho’m, | |
| And deal them presentlie, | |
| To the young that canna, the auld that maunna, | |
| And the blind that does not see. | 40 |
| |
XI
‘Fight on, fight on, my merry men all! | |
| With you I’ll fight no more; | |
| But I will gang to some holy place | |
| And pray to the King of Glore.’ | |
| | | GLOSS: kaim] comb. cham’er] chamber. Glore] Glory. |
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