Poems and Songs of Robert Burns eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 836 pages of information about Poems and Songs of Robert Burns.
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Poems and Songs of Robert Burns eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 836 pages of information about Poems and Songs of Robert Burns.

     All you who follow wealth and power with unremitting ardour, O,
     The more in this you look for bliss, you leave your view the farther, O: 
     Had you the wealth Potosi boasts, or nations to adore you, O,
     A cheerful honest-hearted clown I will prefer before you, O.

John Barleycorn:  A Ballad

     There was three kings into the east,
     Three kings both great and high,
     And they hae sworn a solemn oath
     John Barleycorn should die.

     They took a plough and plough’d him down,
     Put clods upon his head,
     And they hae sworn a solemn oath
     John Barleycorn was dead.

     But the cheerful Spring came kindly on,
     And show’rs began to fall;
     John Barleycorn got up again,
     And sore surpris’d them all.

     The sultry suns of Summer came,
     And he grew thick and strong;
     His head weel arm’d wi’ pointed spears,
     That no one should him wrong.

     The sober Autumn enter’d mild,
     When he grew wan and pale;
     His bending joints and drooping head
     Show’d he began to fail.

     His colour sicken’d more and more,
     He faded into age;
     And then his enemies began
     To show their deadly rage.

     They’ve taen a weapon, long and sharp,
     And cut him by the knee;
     Then tied him fast upon a cart,
     Like a rogue for forgerie.

     They laid him down upon his back,
     And cudgell’d him full sore;
     They hung him up before the storm,
     And turned him o’er and o’er.

     They filled up a darksome pit
     With water to the brim;
     They heaved in John Barleycorn,
     There let him sink or swim.

     They laid him out upon the floor,
     To work him farther woe;
     And still, as signs of life appear’d,
     They toss’d him to and fro.

     They wasted, o’er a scorching flame,
     The marrow of his bones;
     But a miller us’d him worst of all,
     For he crush’d him between two stones.

     And they hae taen his very heart’s blood,
     And drank it round and round;
     And still the more and more they drank,
     Their joy did more abound.

     John Barleycorn was a hero bold,
     Of noble enterprise;
     For if you do but taste his blood,
     ’Twill make your courage rise.

     ’Twill make a man forget his woe;
     ’Twill heighten all his joy;
     ’Twill make the widow’s heart to sing,
     Tho’ the tear were in her eye.

     Then let us toast John Barleycorn,
     Each man a glass in hand;
     And may his great posterity
     Ne’er fail in old Scotland!

1783

Death And Dying Words Of Poor Mailie, The Author’s Only Pet Yowe., The

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Project Gutenberg
Poems and Songs of Robert Burns from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.