Bonny lass of Calder Braes (1806)/The bonny lass of Calder Braes

THE LASS OF CALDER BRAES.

(Tune—Logan Water)

WHen cares were few and life was young
On Calder’s braes I danc‘d and sung
Unpain’d by keen remorse’s dart,
Joy flow’d spontaneous from my heart!
To crown the happy mundane scene,
I lov’d—nor did I love in vain,
The theme of all my artless lays.
Was my dear lass of Calder Braes.

⁠Thrice happy days! your loss I mourn;
You’re gone—ah! “never to return:”
Ambition’s ignis fatu s glare
Transform’d my bliss to black despair:
The pomp of war and pride of arms
Appear’d with such resistless charms,
I left to face my country’s faes
My weeping maid on Calder Braes.

⁠In martial conflict first I shone,
In climes below the burning zone,
Beneath eringapatam’s wall,
I saw the tyrant Sultan’s fall
Amidst the carnage of that day,
Where dead and dying round me lay,
‘Midst cannons‘ roar and lightning’s blaze,
I thought on peaceful Calder Braes.

⁠With laurels crown’d with wealth array’d,
Again I sought my native shade.
In hopes my long lost love to meet,
To lay my laurels at her feet:
Alas! I never saw her more;
My sanguine dreams of bliss are o’er,
My only pleasure's now to gaze
On her lov’d grave on Calder Braes.