---
title: "O Were My Love Yon Lilac Fair"
subtitle: "Air—“Hughie Graham.”"
author: "Robert Burns"
form: "Poem"
year: "1793"
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-were-my-love-yon-lilac-fair/"
---

# O Were My Love Yon Lilac Fair

### Air—“Hughie Graham.”

## Poem
O were my love yon Lilac fair,  
Wi’ purple blossoms to the Spring,  
And I, a bird to shelter there,  
When wearied on my little wing!  
How I wad mourn when it was torn  
By Autumn wild, and Winter rude!  
But I wad sing on wanton wing,  
When youthfu’ May its bloom renew’d.

O gin my love were yon red rose,  
That grows upon the castle wa’;  
And I myself a drap o’ dew,  
Into her bonie breast to fa’!  
O there, beyond expression blest,  
I’d feast on beauty a’ the night;  
Seal’d on her silk-saft faulds to rest,  
Till fley’d awa by Phoebus’ light!

---

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-my-love-yon-lilac-fair/