Page:The Book of Scottish Song.djvu/368

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350
SCOTTISH SONGS.

The troops were embark'd.

[John Mayne.]

The troops were all embark'd on board;
The ships were under weigh;
And loving wives, and maids adored,
Were weeping round the bay.

They parted from their dearest friends,
From all their heart desires;
And Rosabell to heaven commends
The man her soul admires!

For him, she fled from soft repose;
Renounced a parent's care:
He sails to crush his country's foes—
She wanders in despair!

A seraph in an infant's frame,
Reclined upon her arm;
And sorrow, in the comely dame,
Now heigh ten'd every charm:

She thought, if fortune had but smiled—
She thought upon her dear;
But when she look'd upon his child,
O! then ran many a tear!

"Ah! who will watch thee as thou sleep'st?
Who'll sing a lullaby,
Or rock thy cradle when thou weep'st,
If I should chance to die!"

On board the ship, resign'd to fate,
Yet planning joys to come,
Her love in silent sorrow sate,
Upon a broken drum:

He saw her lonely on the beach;
He saw her on the strand;
And far as human eye can reach,
He saw her wave her hand!

"O, Rosabell! though forced to go,
With thee my soul shall dwell;
And heaven, who pities human woe,
Will comfort Rosabell."


When first I saw.

[From the Scotsman newspaper of 29th June, 1842.— Air, "Somebody." This song, we understand, is by Lieut. T. C. Gray, son of Captain Charles Gray, author of "Lays and Lyrics."]

When first I saw the witching smiles
That glanced frae e'e o' somebody,
Around my heart it cuist love's wiles—
That deep blue e'e o' somebody.
Ochon, for somebody!
Och hey, for somebody!
I'll ne'er forget that glamour'd glance
Shot frae the e'e o' somebody!

Soft glossy locks o' darkest brown
Adorn the brow o' somebody,
And hang in waving wimplers down
The snowy neck o' somebody.
Ochon, for somebody!
Och hey, for somebody!
Here Nature, in her simple guise,
A halo sheds round somebody!

And music, wi' its magic sound,
Attunes the voice of somebody,
When softly swell the words around—
"Oh, for the sake o' somebody!"
Ochon, for somebody!
Och hey, for somebody!
Nae strains to me are half sae sweet
As those I hear frae somebody I

For, as she chants that simple lay.
And sweetly sings o' somebody,
My heart, enraptured, borne away,
Responsive throbs to "somebody!"
Ochon, for somebody!
Och hey, for somebody!
Hope whispers I'm the happy man—
The dearly loved o" somebody!

Though fair her face, the artless mind
Is fairer far of somebody;
There, truth and innocence combined,
Add tenfold charms to somebody.
Ochon, for somebody!
Och hey, for somebody!
Gae range the world frae end to end,
Ye'll find nane like that somebody!