| |
| THY braes were bonnie, Yarrow stream, | |
| When first on them I met my lover; | |
| Thy braes how dreary, Yarrow stream, | |
| When now thy waves his body cover! | |
| Forever, now, O Yarrow stream! | 5 |
| Thou art to me a stream of sorrow; | |
| For never on thy banks shall I | |
| Behold my love, the flower of Yarrow! | |
| |
| He promised me a milk-white steed, | |
| To bear me to his father’s bowers; | 10 |
| He promised me a little page, | |
| To squire me to his father’s towers; | |
| He promised me a wedding-ring,— | |
| The wedding-day was fixed to-morrow: | |
| Now he is wedded to his grave, | 15 |
| Alas, his watery grave in Yarrow! | |
| |
| Sweet were his words when last we met, | |
| My passion as I freely told him; | |
| Clasped in his arms, I little thought | |
| That I should nevermore behold him. | 20 |
| Scarce was he gone, I saw his ghost,— | |
| It vanished with a shriek of sorrow; | |
| Thrice did the Water Wraith ascend, | |
| And give a doleful groan through Yarrow! | |
| |
| His mother from the window looked, | 25 |
| With all the longing of a mother; | |
| His little sister weeping walked | |
| The greenwood path to meet her brother: | |
| They sought him east, they sought him west, | |
| They sought him all the forest thorough; | 30 |
| They only saw the cloud of night, | |
| They only heard the roar of Yarrow. | |
| |
| No longer from the window look; | |
| Thou hast no son, thou tender mother! | |
| No longer walk, thou lovely maid; | 35 |
| Alas, thou hast no more a brother! | |
| No longer seek him east or west, | |
| No longer search the forest thorough; | |
| For wandering in the night so dark, | |
| He fell a lifeless corse in Yarrow. | 40 |
| |
| The tears shall never leave my cheek; | |
| No other youth shall be my marrow; | |
| I ’ll seek thy body in the stream, | |
| And there with thee I ’ll sleep in Yarrow! | |
| The tear did never leave her cheek: | 45 |
| No other youth became her marrow; | |
| She found his body in the stream, | |
| And with him now she sleeps in Yarrow. | |
| |
