Complete Songs Of Robert Burns - online book

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270             TONE-POETRY OF ROBERT BURNS
No. 286. The small birds rejoice.
Time : Captain O'Kane McGlashan's Reels, 1786, p. 36.
The small birds rejoice in the green leaves returning, The murmuring streamlet winds clear thro' the vale,
The primroses blow in the dews of the morning, And wild scatter'd cowslips bedeck the green dale:
But what can give pleasure, or what can seem fair,
When the lingering moments are number'd by care? No birds sweetly singing, nor flow'rs gaily springing,
Can soothe the sad bosom of joyless despair.
The deed that I dared, could it merit their malice, A king and a father to place on his throne?
His right are these hills, and his right are those valleys, Where the wild beasts find shelter, tho' I can find none!