---
title: "Phillis the Fair"
author: "Robert Burns"
form: "Song"
year: "1793"
tune: "Robin Adair"
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/phillis-the-fair/"
---

# Phillis the Fair

## Song
While larks, with little wing,  
Fann’d the pure air,  
Tasting the breathing Spring,  
Forth I did fare:  
Gay the sun’s golden eye  
Peep’d o’er the mountains high;  
Such thy morn! did I cry,  
Phillis the fair.

In each bird’s careless song,  
Glad I did share;  
While yon wild-flowers among,  
Chance led me there!  
Sweet to the op’ning day,  
Rosebuds bent the dewy spray;  
Such thy bloom! did I say,  
Phillis the fair.

Down in a shady walk,  
Doves cooing were;  
I mark’d the cruel hawk  
Caught in a snare:  
So kind may fortune be,  
Such make his destiny,  
He who would injure thee,  
Phillis the fair.

---

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/phillis-the-fair/