Blythe Was She1
Tune—“Andro and his Cutty Gun.”
Chorus.—Blythe, blythe and merry was she,
Blythe was she but and ben;
Blythe by the banks of Earn,
And blythe in Glenturit glen.
By Oughtertyre grows the aik,
On Yarrow banks the birken shaw;
But Phemie was a bonier lass
Than braes o’ Yarrow ever saw.
Blythe, blythe, &c.
Her looks were like a flow’r in May,
Her smile was like a simmer morn:
She tripped by the banks o’ Earn,
As light’s a bird upon a thorn.
Blythe, blythe, &c.
Her bonie face it was as meek
As ony lamb upon a lea;
The evening sun was ne’er sae sweet,
As was the blink o’ Phemie’s e’e.
Blythe, blythe, &c.
[Footnote 1: Written at Oughtertyre. Phemie is Miss Euphemia
Murray, a cousin of Sir William Murray of Oughtertyre.—Lang.]
The Highland hills I’ve wander’d wide,
And o’er the Lawlands I hae been;
But Phemie was the blythest lass
That ever trod the dewy green.
Blythe, blythe, &c.