I've seen the smiling Of Fortune beguiling; I've felt all its favours, and found its decay; Sweet was its blessing, Kind its caressing; But now it is fled -- it is fled far away. I've seen the Forest Adorned the foremost With flowers of the fairest most pleasant and gay; Sae bonnie was their blooming! Their scent the air perfuming! But now they are wither'd and weded away. I've seen the morning With gold the hills adorning, And loud tempest storming before the mid-day. I've seen Tweed's silver streams Shining in the sunny beams, Grow drumly and dark as he rowed on his way. Oh, fickle Fortune, Why this cruel sporting? Oh, why still perplex us, poor sons of a day? Nae mair your smiles can cheer me, Nae mair your frowns can fear me; For the Flowers of the Forest are a' wede away. | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...LADY OF CASTLENORE; A.D. 1700 by THOMAS BAILEY ALDRICH SIC A WIFE AS WILLIE HAD by ROBERT BURNS A LAKE SUNRISE by GEORGE HERBERT CLARKE THE LILY AND THE ROSE by WILLIAM COWPER ATAVISTIC by PAULINE GARNER CURRAN |