Blue Flowers and Yellow; or, The Blue Flowers and the Yellow
WILLIE'S LYKE-WAKE—B
[_]
a. Buchan's Ballads of the North of Scotland, i, 185. b.
Christie, Traditional Ballad Airs, i, 120.
1
‘O Willie my son, what makes you sae sad?’
As the sun shines over the valley
‘I lye sarely sick for the love of a maid.’
Amang the blue flowers and the yellow
2
‘Were she an heiress or lady sae free,
That she will take no pity on thee?
3
‘O Willie, my son, I'll learn you a wile,
How this fair maid ye may beguile.
4
‘Ye'll gie the principal bellman a groat,
And ye'll gar him cry your dead lyke-wake.’
5
Then he gae the principal bellman a groat,
He bade him cry his dead lyke-wake.
6
This maiden she stood till she heard it a',
And down frae her cheeks the tears did fa.
7
She is hame to her father's ain bower:
‘I'll gang to yon lyke-wake ae single hour.’
8
‘Ye must take with you your ain brither John;
It's not meet for maidens to venture alone.’
9
‘I'll not take with me my brither John,
But I'll gang along, myself all alone.’
10
When she came to young Willie's yate,
His seven brithers were standing thereat.
11
Then they did conduct her into the ha,
Amang the weepers and merry mourners a'.
12
When she lifted up the covering sae red,
With melancholy countenance to look on the dead,
13
He's taen her in his arms, laid her gainst the wa,
Says, ‘Lye ye here, fair maid, till day.’
14
‘O spare me, O spare me, but this single night,
And let me gang hame a maiden sae bright.’
15
‘Tho all your kin were about your bower,
Ye shall not be a maiden ae single hour.
16
‘Fair maid, ye came here without a convoy,
But ye shall return wi a horse and a boy.
17
‘Ye came here a maiden sae mild,
But ye shall gae hame a wedded wife with child.’
