---
title: "O Bonie Was Yon Rosy Brier"
author: "Robert Burns"
form: "Poem"
year: "1795"
location: "Dumfries"
source: "Project Gutenberg #1279 — Poems and Songs of Robert Burns"
source_url: "https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/1279/pg1279.txt"
canonical_url: "https://robert-burns.com/poems/o-bonie-was-yon-rosy-brier/"
---

# O Bonie Was Yon Rosy Brier

## Poem
O bonie was yon rosy brier,  
That blooms sae far frae haunt o’ man;  
And bonie she, and ah, how dear!  
It shaded frae the e’enin sun.

Yon rosebuds in the morning dew,  
How pure, amang the leaves sae green;  
But purer was the lover’s vow  
They witness’d in their shade yestreen.

All in its rude and prickly bower,  
That crimson rose, how sweet and fair;  
But love is far a sweeter flower,  
Amid life’s thorny path o’ care.

The pathless, wild and wimpling burn,  
Wi’ Chloris in my arms, be mine;  
And I the warld nor wish nor scorn,  
Its joys and griefs alike resign.

---

Source: [Project Gutenberg #1279 — Poems and Songs of Robert Burns](https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/1279/pg1279.txt)  
Canonical HTML: https://robert-burns.com/poems/o-bonie-was-yon-rosy-brier/