LAMENT OF MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS, ON THE APPROACH OF SPRING. Now nature hangs her mantle On every blooming tree, green And spreads her sheets o' daisies white Out o'er the grassy lea: Now Phoebus chears the crystal streams, And glads the azure skies; But nought can glad the weary wight That fast in durance lies. Now lav'rocks wake the merry morn, Aloft on dewy wing; The merle, in his noontide bow'r, Makes woodland echoes ring; The mavis mild, wi' many a note, Now blooms the lily by the bank, May rove their sweets amang; I was the Queen o' bonnie France, Fu' lightly rase I in the morn, And I'm the sov'reign of Scotland, And monie a traitor there; Yet here I lie in foreign bands, But as for thee, thou false woman, Grim vengeance yet shall whet a sword That thro' thy soul shall gae: The weeping blood in woman's breast Was never known to thee; Nor th' balm that draps on wounds of woe Frae woman's pitying e'e. My son my son! ! may kinder stars Upon thy fortune shine: And may those pleasures gild thy reign, God keep thee frae thy mother's faes, Or turn their hearts to thee: And where thou meet'st thy mother's friend, Remember him for me! O! soon, to me, may summer suns Nae mair light up the morn! Wave o'er the yellow corn! |