---
title: "The Minstrel at Lincluden"
author: "Robert Burns"
form: "Song"
year: "1794"
tune: "Cumnock Psalms"
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-minstrel-at-lincluden/"
---

# The Minstrel at Lincluden

## Song
As I stood by yon roofless tower,  
Where the wa’flow’r scents the dery air,  
Where the howlet mourns in her ivy bower,  
And tells the midnight moon her care.

*Chorus*  
A lassie all alone, was making her moan,  
Lamenting our lads beyond the sea:  
In the bluidy wars they fa’, and our honour’s gane an’ a’,  
And broken-hearted we maun die.

The winds were laid, the air was till,  
The stars they shot along the sky;  
The tod was howling on the hill,  
And the distant-echoing glens reply.

*Chorus*  
A lassie all alone, was making her moan,  
Lamenting our lads beyond the sea:  
In the bluidy wars they fa’, and our honour’s gane an’ a’,  
And broken-hearted we maun die.

The burn, adown its hazelly path,  
Was rushing by the ruin’d wa’,  
Hasting to join the sweeping Nith,  
Whase roarings seem’d to rise and fa’.

*Chorus*  
A lassie all alone, was making her moan,  
Lamenting our lads beyond the sea:  
In the bluidy wars they fa’, and our honour’s gane an’ a’,  
And broken-hearted we maun die.

The cauld blae North was streaming forth  
Her lights, wi’ hissing, eerie din,  
Athort the lift they start and shift,  
Like Fortune’s favours, tint as win.

*Chorus*  
A lassie all alone, was making her moan,  
Lamenting our lads beyond the sea:  
In the bluidy wars they fa’, and our honour’s gane an’ a’,  
And broken-hearted we maun die.

Now, looking over firth and fauld,  
Her horn the pale-faced Cynthia rear’d,  
When lo! in form of Minstrel auld,  
A stern and stalwart ghaist appear’d.

*Chorus*  
A lassie all alone, was making her moan,  
Lamenting our lads beyond the sea:  
In the bluidy wars they fa’, and our honour’s gane an’ a’,  
And broken-hearted we maun die.

And frae his harp sic strains did flow,  
Might rous’d the slumbering Dead to hear;  
But oh, it was a tale of woe,  
As ever met a Briton’s ear!

*Chorus*  
A lassie all alone, was making her moan,  
Lamenting our lads beyond the sea:  
In the bluidy wars they fa’, and our honour’s gane an’ a’,  
And broken-hearted we maun die.

He sang wi’ joy his former day,  
He, weeping, wail’d his latter times;  
But what he said—it was nae play,  
I winna venture’t in my rhymes.

*Chorus*  
A lassie all alone, was making her moan,  
Lamenting our lads beyond the sea:  
In the bluidy wars they fa’, and our honour’s gane an’ a’,  
And broken-hearted we maun die.

---

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-minstrel-at-lincluden/