[Page 196]

OLD HARRY'S RETURN.
2. Harry Macdowal. Mrs Brown. This seems some incident which Miss Blamire had met with while resident in Scotland, as appears from the name Macdowal.

1 THE wars are all o'er and my Harry's at hame,
2 What else can I want now I've got him again!
3 Yet I kenna how 'tis, for I laugh and I cry,
4 And I sigh, and I sab, yet it maun be for joy;
5 My Harry he smiles, and he wipes aff the tear,
6 An' I'm doubtfu' again gin it can be he's here,
7 Till he takes wee bit Janet to sit on his knee,
8 And ca's her his dawty, for oh! she's like me.
9 Then the neighbours come in and they welcome him hame,
10 And I fa' a greeting, though much I think shame;
11 Then I steal ben the house while they talk o' the war,
12 For I turn cauld as death when he shows them a scar.
13 They tell o' ane Elliot, an' brave he maun be,
14 But I ken a poor soldier as brave yet as he;
[Page 197]
15 For when that the Spaniards were wreck'd on the tide
16 "They are soldiers, my lads, let us save them," he cried.
1. At Gibraltar the English soldiers risked their lives in saving the Spaniards when their floating batteries were on fire. Mrs Brown.
17 The neighbours being gane, and the bairns on his knee,
18 He fetch'd a lang sigh, and he look'd sair at me;
19 Poor woman, quo' he, ye'd hae muckle to do
20 To get bread to yoursel, and thir wee bit things too!
21 It is true, my dear Harry, I toil'd verra hard,
22 Sent Elspa to service, and Jocky to herd;
23 For I knew unca weel 'twas an auld soldier's pride
24 Aye to take frae his King, but frae nae ane beside!
25 Then guide ye my pension, quo' Harry, my life,
26 'Mang a' the King's troops wha can match me a wife;
27 When young she was handsome, they envy'd me sair,
28 But now when she's auld they may envy me mair!
29 What's a' the wide world to the joys o' the heart?
30 What are riches and splendour to those that maun part?
31 And might I this moment an emperor be,
32 I'd thraw down the crown gin it kept me frae thee!

Text

  • TEI/XML [chunk] (XML - 107K / ZIP - 11K) / ECPA schema (RNC - 357K / ZIP - 73K)
  • Plain text [excluding paratexts] (TXT - 1.6K / ZIP - 1.0K)

Facsimile (Source Edition)

(Page images digitized from a copy in the Bodleian Library [42.256].)

Images

PDF

All Images (PDF - 2.3M)

About this text

Title (in Source Edition): OLD HARRY'S RETURN.
Themes:
Genres: song

Text view / Document view

Source edition

Blamire, Susanna, 1747-1794. The Poetical Works of Miss Susanna Blamire “The muse of Cumberland.” Now for the first time collected by Henry Lonsdale, M.D. with a preface, memoir, and notes by Patrick Maxwell, ... Edinburgh: John Menzies, 61 Princes Street; R. Tyas, London; D. Robertson, Glasgow; and C. Thurnam, Carlisle. MDCCCXLII., 1842, pp. 196-197.  (Page images digitized from a copy in the Bodleian Library [42.256].)

Editorial principles

Typography, spelling, capitalization, and punctuation have been cautiously modernized. The source of the text is given and all significant editorial interventions have been recorded in textual notes. This ECPA text has been edited to conform to the recommendations found in Level 5 of the Best Practices for TEI in Libraries version 4.0.0.

Other works by Susanna Blamire