Six Love Songs (1830-1840)/Had I the wyte

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Had I the wyte she bade me.

Had I the wyte, had I the wyte,
⁠Had I the wyte she bade me?
She watch’d me by the hiegate side,
⁠And up the loan she show’d me.

And when I wadna venture in,
⁠A coward loon she ca’d me:
Had kirk and state been in the gate,
⁠I’d lighted when she bade me.

Sae craftilly she took me ben,
⁠And bade me make nae clatter;
For our rumgunshoek, glum gudeman
⁠Is o’er ayont the water.

Whae’er shall say I wanted grace,
⁠When I did kiss and daut her,
Let him be planted in my place,
⁠Syne say, I was a fautor.

Could I for shame, could I for shame,
⁠Could I for shame refus’d her?
And wadna manhood been to blame,
⁠Had I unkindly us’d her.

He clawd her wi’ the rippling-kame,
⁠And blae and bluidy bruis’d her;
When sie a husband was frae hame,
⁠What wife but wad excus’d her?

I dighted ay her een sae blue,
⁠And bann’d the cruel randy;
And weel I wat, her willing mou
⁠Was e’n like sugarcandy.

At gloanin-shot it was I wat,
⁠I lighted on the Monday;
But I cam thro’ the Tiseday’s dew,
⁠To wanton Willie’s brandy.