Explore "M'Pherson's Farewell" by Robert Burns on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Tune-"M'Pherson's Rant."
Farewell, ye dungeons dark and strong, / The wretch's destinie! / M'Pherson's time will not be long / On yonder gallows-tree.
Chorus. -Sae rantingly, sae wantonly, / Sae dauntingly gaed he; / He play'd a spring, and danc'd it round, / Below the gallows-tree.
O, what is death but parting breath? / On many a bloody plain / I've dared his face, and in this place / I scorn him yet again! / Sae rantingly, &c.
Untie these bands from off my hands, / And bring me to my sword; / And there's no a man in all Scotland / But I'll brave him at a word. / Sae rantingly, &c.
I've liv'd a life of sturt and strife; / I die by treacherie: / It burns my heart I must depart, / And not avenged be. / Sae rantingly, &c.
Now farewell light, thou sunshine bright, / And all beneath the sky! / May coward shame distain his name, / The wretch that dares not die! / Sae rantingly, &c.