| J. C. Squire, ed. A Book of Women’s Verse. 1921. | | | | The Flowers of the Forest | | By Alison Cockburn (1712–1794) |
| | | I’VE seen the smiling of Fortune beguiling, | |
| I’ve tasted her favours, and felt her decay; | |
| Sweet is her blessing, and kind her caressing, | |
| But soon it is fled,—it is fled far away. | |
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| I’ve seen the forest adorn’d of the foremost, | 5 |
| With flowers of the fairest, both pleasant and gay; | |
| Full sweet was their blooming, their scent the air perfuming, | |
| But now they are wither’d and a’ wede away. | |
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| I’ve seen the morning, with gold the hills adorning, | |
| And the red storm roaring, before the parting day; | 10 |
| I’ve seen Tweed’s silver streams, glittering in the sunny beams, | |
| Turn drumly and dark, as they roll’d on their way. | |
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| O fickle Fortune! why this cruel sporting? | |
| Why thus perplex us poor sons of a day? | |
| Thy frowns cannot fear me, thy smiles cannot cheer me, | 15 |
| Since the flowers of the forest are a’ wede away. | | | | |
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