Thomas Humphry Ward, ed. The English Poets. 1880–1918.rnVol. III. The Eighteenth Century: Addison to Blake

Robert Burns (1759–1796)

Of a’ the Airts the Wind Can Blaw

TUNE—‘Miss Admiral Gordon’s Strathspey.’

OF a’ the airts the wind can blaw,

I dearly like the west,

For there the bonie lassie lives,

The lassie I lo’e best;

There wild woods grow, and rivers row,

And mony a hill between;

By day and night my fancy’s flight

Is ever wi’ my Jean.

I see her in the dewy flowers,

I see her sweet and fair;

I hear her in the tunefu’ birds,

I hear her charm the air:

There ’s not a bonie flower that springs

By fountain, shaw, or green;

There ’s not a bonie bird that sings,

But minds me o’ my Jean.