1 Flow gently, sweet Afton, amang thy green braes;
Flow gently, I'll sing thee a song in thy praise;
My Mary's asleep by thy murmuring stream,
Flow gently, sweet Afton, disturb not her dream.
Thou stock-dove whose echo resounds from the hill,
Ye wild whistling black-birds in yon thorny dell,
Thou green-crested lapwing thy screaming forbear,
I charge you, disturb not my slumbering fair.
2 How lofty, sweet Afton, thy neighboring hills,
Far mark'd with the courses of clear winding rills!
There daily I wander, as morn rises high,
My flocks and my Mary's sweet cot in my eye.
How pleasant thy banks and green valleys below,
Where wild in the woodlands, the primroses blow!
There oft, as mild evening creeps over the lea,
The sweet scented birk shades my Mary and me.
3 Thy crystal stream, Afton, how lovely it glides,
And winds by the cot where my Mary resides!
How wanton thy waters her snowy feet lave,
As, gath'ring sweet flow'rets, she stems thy clear wave!
Flow gently, sweet Afton, amang thy green braes,
Flow gently, sweet river, the theme of my lays:
My Mary's asleep by thy murmuring stream,
Flow gently, sweet Afton, disturb not her dream.
Source: Seth Parker's Hymnal #201
Burns, Robert. This poet's life had little in common with hymnology, although some of his pieces, in common with a few of Byron's, have come into use in Great Britain and America. His life, from his birth in the parish of Alloway, near Ayr, Jan. 25, 1759, to his death, at Dumfries, July 21, 1796, was one of varying lights and shadows, and has been told elsewhere, frequently and eloquently. It remains for us only to name his sacred pieces, their origin, and their use. Those in common use are:—
1. O Thou great Being! What Thou art. Lent. Burns's account of this piece as entered in his Common¬place Book, under the date of "March, 1784," is:—
"There was a certain period of my life that my spirit was broken by repeated losses and disaste… Go to person page >
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