Explore "Blythe was She" by Robert Burns on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Written at Oughtertyre. Phemie is Miss Euphemia Murray, a cousin of Sir William Murray of Oughtertyre. -Lang.
Tune-"Andro and his Cutty Gun."
Chorus. -Blythe, blythe and merry was she, / Blythe was she but and ben; / Blythe by the banks of Earn, / And blythe in Glenturit glen.
By Oughtertyre grows the aik, / On Yarrow banks the birken shaw; / But Phemie was a bonier lass / Than braes o' Yarrow ever saw. / Blythe, blythe, &c.
Her looks were like a flow'r in May, / Her smile was like a simmer morn: / She tripped by the banks o' Earn, / As light's a bird upon a thorn. / Blythe, blythe, &c.
Her bonie face it was as meek / As ony lamb upon a lea; / The evening sun was ne'er sae sweet, / As was the blink o' Phemie's e'e. / Blythe, blythe, &c.
The Highland hills I've wander'd wide, / And o'er the Lawlands I hae been; / But Phemie was the blythest lass / That ever trod the dewy green. / Blythe, blythe, &c.