A Portrait of Robert Burns Robert Burns

1787 · Song

Blythe Was She


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.4
By Oughtertyre grows the aik,On Yarrow banks the birken shaw;But Phemie was a bonier lassThan braes o’ Yarrow ever saw.8

Chorus

Blythe, blythe and merry was she,Blythe was she but and ben;Blythe by the banks of Earn,And blythe in Glenturit glen.12
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.16

Chorus

Blythe, blythe and merry was she,Blythe was she but and ben;Blythe by the banks of Earn,And blythe in Glenturit glen.20
Her bonie face it was as meekAs ony lamb upon a lea;The evening sun was ne’er sae sweet,As was the blink o’ Phemie’s e’e.24

Chorus

Blythe, blythe and merry was she,Blythe was she but and ben;Blythe by the banks of Earn,And blythe in Glenturit glen.28
The Highland hills I’ve wander’d wide,And o’er the Lawlands I hae been;But Phemie was the blythest lassThat ever trod the dewy green.32

Chorus

Blythe, blythe and merry was she,Blythe was she but and ben;Blythe by the banks of Earn,And blythe in Glenturit glen.36

Footnotes

  1. 1. Written at Oughtertyre. Phemie is Miss Euphemia Murray, a cousin of Sir William Murray of Oughtertyre.—Lang.
Year
1787
Form
Song
Location
Edinburgh
Tune
Andro and his Cutty Gun
Source
Project Gutenberg #1279 — Poems and Songs of Robert Burns