---
title: "O, Were I on Parnassus Hill"
author: "Robert Burns"
form: "Song"
year: "1788"
tune: "My love is lost to me"
location: "Mossgiel"
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-were-i-on-parnassus-hill/"
---

# O, Were I on Parnassus Hill

## Song
O, were I on Parnassus hill,  
Or had o’ Helicon my fill,  
That I might catch poetic skill,  
To sing how dear I love thee!  
But Nith maun be my Muse’s well,  
My Muse maun be thy bonie sel’,  
On Corsincon I’ll glowr and spell,  
And write how dear I love thee.

Then come, sweet Muse, inspire my lay!  
For a’ the lee-lang simmer’s day  
I couldna sing, I couldna say,  
How much, how dear, I love thee,  
I see thee dancing o’er the green,  
Thy waist sae jimp, thy limbs sae clean,  
Thy tempting lips, thy roguish een—  
By Heaven and Earth I love thee!

By night, by day, a-field, at hame,  
The thoughts o’ thee my breast inflame:  
And aye I muse and sing thy name—  
I only live to love thee.  
Tho’ I were doom’d to wander on,  
Beyond the sea, beyond the sun,  
Till my last weary sand was run;  
Till then—and then I love thee!

---

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-were-i-on-parnassus-hill/