The Book of Scottish Song/I gaed a waefu' gate

by Robert Burns

For other versions of this work, see I Gaed a Waefu' Gate Yestreen.

I gaed a waefu' gate.

[Written by Burns in 1789 for the Museum. The subject of the song was a daughter of the Rev. Mr. Jeffrey of Lochmaben, now Mrs. Renwick of New York. The air was composed by Robert Riddle of Glenriddle, Esq., and called "The blue-eyed lassie."]

I gaed a waefu' gate yestreen,
⁠A gate I fear I'll dearly rue;
I gat my death frae twa sweet een,
⁠Twa lovely een o' bonnie blue.
'Twas not her golden ringlets bright,
⁠Her lips like roses wet wi' dew,
Her heaving bosom, lily-white—
⁠It was her een sae bonnie blue.

She talk'd, she smiled, my heart she wiled,
⁠She charm'd my soul I wist na how,
But aye the stound, the deadly wound,
⁠Cam' frae her een sae bonnie blue.
But, spare to speak, and spare to speed,
⁠She'll aiblins listen to my vow:
Should she refuse, I'll lay me dead
⁠To her twa een sae bonnie blue.

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