dots-menu
×

Home  »  Poems of Places An Anthology in 31 Volumes  »  By Allan Stream I Chanced to Rove

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Scotland: Vols. VI–VIII. 1876–79.

Allan Water

By Allan Stream I Chanced to Rove

By Robert Burns (1759–1796)

BY Allan stream I chanced to rove,

While Phœbus sank beyond Benledi;

The winds were whispering through the grove,

The yellow corn was waving ready.

I listened to a lover’s sang,

And thought on youthfu’ pleasures monie;

And aye the wild-wood echoes rang,—

O, dearly do I love thee, Annie!

O, happy be the woodbine bower,

Nae nightly bogle make it eerie;

Nor ever sorrow stain the hour,

The place and time I met my dearie!

Her head upon my throbbing breast,

She, sinking, said, “I ’m thine forever!”

While monie a kiss the seal imprest,

The sacred vow, we ne’er should sever.

The haunt o’ Spring ’s the primrose brae;

The Simmer joys the flocks to follow;

How cheery through her shortening day

Is Autumn in her weeds o’ yellow!

But can they melt the glowing heart,

Or chain the soul in speechless pleasure?

Or through each nerve the rapture dart,

Like meeting her, our bosom’s treasure?