Poetry Explorer- Classic Contemporary Poetry, THE LAMENT OF THE BORDER WIDOW, by ANONYMOUS


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Classic and Contemporary Poetry

THE LAMENT OF THE BORDER WIDOW, by                    
First Line: My love he built me a bonny bower
Last Line: I'll chain my heart for evermair
Variant Title(s): The Border Widow's Lament;the Bonnie Bower
Subject(s): Fidelity;love;mourning;widows & Widowers; Faithfulness;constancy;bereavement


My love he built me a bonny bower,
And clad it a wi lilye flower.
A brawer bower ye ne'er did see
Than my true love he built for me.
There came a man by middle day,
He spied his sport and went away,
And brought the king that very night,
Who brake my bower, and slew by knight.
He slew my knight to me sae dear.
He slew my knight and poind his gear.
My servants all for life did flee
And left me in extremitie.
I sew'd his sheet, making my mane,
I watched the corpse myself alane,
I watched his body night and day.
No living creature came that way.
I took his body on my back,
And whiles I gaed, and whiles I sat.
I digg'd a grave and laid him in,
And happ'd him with the sod sae green.
But think na ye my heart was sair
When I laid the moul on his yellow hair?
O think na ye my heart was wae
When I turn'd about, away to gae?
Nae living man I'll love again,
Since that my lovely knight is slain.
Wi ae lock of his yellow hair
I'll chain my heart for evermair.







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