Guardian angels, O protect her, To realms unknown while fate exiles me, HIGHLAND MARY. In this song, so exquisitely mournful, we see all the anticipations, all the hopes, of Burns laid low. His Prayer was not heard. His Mary was, as it were, struck dead at his feet. She met him, by appointment, in a sequestered spot by the banks of Ayr, where she spent the day with him in taking a farewell, before she should embark for the West-Highlands, to arrange matters among her friends for her projected clange in life. Shortly after she crossed the sea to meet him at Greenock, where she had scarcely landed when she was seized with a malignant fever, which hurried her to the grave in a few days, before he could even hear of her illness. Tune.-Katharine Ogie. YE banks, and braes, and streams around Green be your woods, and fair your flowers, There simmer first unfald" her robes, For there I took the last fareweel How sweetly bloom'd the gay green birk! Wi' monie a vow and lock'd embrace, " Unfolds. |