Page:Murphy Delaney.pdf/5

5 O, WERE I ON PARNASSUS’ HILL.

-" My love is lost to me,

O were I on Parnassus’ hill!

Or had of Helicon my fill;

That I might catch poetic skill,

To sing how dear I love thee.

But Nith maun be my muse’s well,

My muse maun be thy bonnie sell;

On Corsincon I’ll glow’r and spell,

And write how dear I love thee.

Then come, sweet muse, inspire my lay,

For a’ the lea-lang simmer’s day,

I coudna sing, I coudna say,

How much, how dear I love thee.

I see thee dancing o’er the green:

Thy waist sae jimp, thy limbs sae clean,

Thy tempting lips, thy roguish een—

By heaven and earth I love thee!

By night by day, a-field, at hame,

The thoughts o’ thee my breast inflame;

And aye I muse and sing thy name,

I only live to love thee.

Tho’ I were doom’d to wander on,

Beyond the sea, beyond the sun,

’Till my last weary sand was run,

’Till then—and then I love thee.