Address to the Wood Lark

by Robert Burns

Tune--"_Where'll bonnie Ann lie._"

[The old song to the same air is yet remembered: but the humour is
richer than the delicacy; the same may be said of many of the fine
hearty lyrics of the elder days of Caledonia. These verses were
composed in May, 1795, for Thomson.]

I.

O stay, sweet warbling woodlark, stay!
Nor quit for me the trembling spray;
A hapless lover courts thy lay,
Thy soothing fond complaining.

II.

Again, again that tender part,
That I may catch thy melting art;
For surely that would touch her heart,
Wha kills me wi' disdaining.

III.

Say, was thy little mate unkind,
And heard thee as the careless wind?
Oh, nocht but love and sorrow join'd,
Sic notes o' woe could wauken.

IV.

Thou tells o' never-ending care;
O' speechless grief and dark despair:
For pity's sake, sweet bird, nae mair!
Or my poor heart is broken!