Barbara Allan
BONNY BARBARA ALLAN—C
[_]
Motherwell's MS., p. 288; from Mrs Duff, Kilbirnie, February
9, 1825.
1
It fell about the Lammas time,
When the woods grow green and yellow,
There came a wooer out of the West
A wooing to Barbara Allan.
2
‘It is not for your bonny face,
Nor for your beauty bonny,
But it is all for your tocher good
I come so far about ye.’
3
‘If it be not for my comely face,
Nor for my beauty bonnie,
My tocher good ye'll never get paid
Down on the board before ye.’
4
‘O will ye go to the Highland hills,
To see my white corn growing?
Or will ye go to the river-side,
To see my boats a rowing?’
5
O he's awa, and awa he's gone,
And death's within him dealing,
And it is all for the sake of her,
His bonnie Barbara Allan.
6
O he sent his man unto the house,
Where that she was a dwelling:
‘O you must come my master to see,
If you be Barbara Allan.’
7
So slowly aye as she put on,
And so stoutly as she gaed till him,
And so slowly as she could say,
‘I think, young man, you're lying.’
8
‘O I am lying in my bed,
And death within me dwelling;
And it is all for the love of thee,
My bonny Barbara Allan.’
9
She was not ae mile frae the town,
Till she heard the dead-bell ringing:
‘Och hone, oh hone, he's dead and gone,
For the love of Barbara Allan!’
