The evening was lovely and littered wi dew
The points o' the thistle was knibbed wi a pearl
When I went i' the gloaming where bindweed bells grew
And talked to young Dinah a beautiful girl
O' bright were the ringlets adown her cheek glowing
And bright were her eyes as the dibbles o dew
That knobs all the spears o' the thistle flowers blowing
While hesperus shone like a lamp i' the blue

O' down i' the e'ening O' moon lighted gloaming
Among the big thistles so blooming and sweet
I the wild flowers and rush beds were both o' us roaming

Where the ash tree weaves
Shadows over the river
And the willow's grey leaves
Shake and quiver —
Meet me & talk, love,
Down the grass-hoppers baulk, love,
And then love for ever —

2

There meet me, & talk, love,
Of love's inward feelings
Where the clouds look like chalk, love,
And the huts & the shielings
Lie like love o'er the river
Here talk of love's feelings,
And love on for ever —

3

Where the bee hums his ballads
By the river so near it,
Round docks & wild salads

1

I love thee nature with a boundless love
The calm of earth, the storms of roaring woods
The winds breathe happiness where e'er I rove
Theres lifes own music in the swelling floods
My harp is in the thunder melting clouds
The snow capt mountain, and the rolling sea
And hear ye not the voice where darkness shrouds
The heavens, — there lives happiness for me

2

Death breathes its pleasures when it speaks of him
My pulse beats calmer while its lightnings play
My eye with earths delusions waxing dim

There is a voice I love to hear
A form I love to meet
A face to me so very dear
A smile so very sweet
Her I love on from day to day
Through seasons past and gone
Of all the world when she's away
She seems the only one
There's no one else her place supplies
That bosom white and those bright eyes.

There is a love to me so sweet
Carnations are not half so dear
There is a maid I love to meet
The fairest blossom o' the year
The rose is nothing like her lips
No gem so bright as Biddy's eyes
The mind is ever in eclipse

1

O'er Scotland's vales and mountains high
I've tented sheep and herded kye
Where every bush and every tree
Was health and happiness to me
The mountain rills ran to the sea
A sunday song of harmony
And every day on hills and dales
'Twas harmony in all her vales

2

The sea-waves, and the ocean spray
The river shining far away
The cataract bursting o'er the rock
In silver foam with thunder shock
Where Scotlands scenes and Scotlands pride
And in my boyhood deified
I lov'd them all and every fame

1

I ever loved the simple flower
Where woman cast her eye
There's not a bloom in walk or bower
Like that she wandered by
'Twas faith without a tear or sigh
It drank dews from above
'Twas joy and hope and poesy
— It won a womans love

2

I lov'd the flower she gazed upon
And stooped to gaze again
It seemed the sweetest in the sun
The fairest on the plain

1

Alas there's no retreating
From the brightness of thy eyes
My heart with love is beating
Then do'nt my love despise
O slight not sweetest Mary
The love I bear to thee
Nor look at all contrary
To the claims of destiny.

2

O let me be the nearest
To your bosom, and your love
I bring a love sincerest
What nature must approve
Where tears and sighs are pleaders

Here's a health to all the pretty girls that dwell about Dundee
And luck to all the spicey pearls Boys loving drops like me
For priestcraft I the halter hing For freedom mints o gold
For honest men " God save the King" May warm hearts ne'er grow cold.

Here's [to] a the honest lasses too That round [the] wrekin be
May love be a' their lives pursue Their persons fond and free
No matter in what Town I dwell Or what the hour I dine
I drink the 'ealth to please my sell And that's to forty nine.

1

The bee loves a blossom and I love a woman
The bird loves the valley, and I love the glen
Where flowers of all sorts, with her beauty is blooming
Oh! when shall I see womans beauty again
When the evening is near, o when shall I hear
The voice of my true love adown in the glen.

2

The bird loves the bushes among the green fields

Thee I love and ever will bonny Lassie O
Let us gang up maple hill bonny Lassie O
While the thrush is singing there And the oakwood darken fair
Hasten and meet me there bonny Lassie O.

Corn bottles more than blue bonny Lassie O
And corn poppies scarlet hue bonny Lassie O
And the rose and the wild brere Crowds wi' blooms and summer here
So gang up maple hill bonny Lassie O.

Sky larks are in the air bonny Lassie O
The brook rins o'er pebbles fair bonny Lassie O
On its banks we'll love so chaste Wi' my arms about thy waist