“WHY come ye in with tresses wild,
With baffling winds aweary,
All damp and cold, my bonny girl,
My deary?
“The sun not yet has oped his lids,
The clouds hold fast together;
Why stirred ye out this angry morn,
And whither?”
“O mother mine! mayhap I rose
To fetch the gillyflower,
Or soothe my sister’s little son
An hour;
“Or else I led a bleating lamb,
Strayed off from any other,
Or went to pray at break of day,
Sweet mother!”
“My Bess, my lass, deceive me not;
So long it had not taken.”
“O no; O no! I did for grief
Awaken.
“My true love never you have seen,
Down by the ships I found him;
In all the gale, I held mine arms
Around him.
“He spake to me, he kissed me thrice,
And sailed the seas a-mourning;
And then my tears rained with the rain
Returning.”