---
title: "The Highland Widow’s Lament"
author: "Robert Burns"
form: "Poem"
year: "1794"
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/the-highland-widows-lament/"
---

# The Highland Widow’s Lament

## Poem
Oh I am come to the low Countrie,  
Ochon, Ochon, Ochrie!  
Without a penny in my purse,  
To buy a meal to me.

It was na sae in the Highland hills,  
Ochon, Ochon, Ochrie!  
Nae woman in the Country wide,  
Sae happy was as me.

For then I had a score o’kye,  
Ochon, Ochon, Ochrie!  
Feeding on you hill sae high,  
And giving milk to me.

And there I had three score o’yowes,  
Ochon, Ochon, Ochrie!  
Skipping on yon bonie knowes,  
And casting woo’ to me.

I was the happiest of a’ the Clan,  
Sair, sair, may I repine;  
For Donald was the brawest man,  
And Donald he was mine.

Till Charlie Stewart cam at last,  
Sae far to set us free;  
My Donald’s arm was wanted then,  
For Scotland and for me.

Their waefu’ fate what need I tell,  
Right to the wrang did yield;  
My Donald and his Country fell,  
Upon Culloden field.

Oh I am come to the low Countrie,  
Ochon, Ochon, Ochrie!  
Nae woman in the warld wide,  
Sae wretched now as me.

---

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/the-highland-widows-lament/