Robert Burns: Collected Lyrics
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Public-domain lyrics

Lament of Mary Queen of Scots, on the Approach of Spring

Robert Burns

“Lament of Mary Queen of Scots, on the Approach of Spring” as printed in The Poetical Works of Robert Burns (1887).

Robert Burns: Collected Lyrics Text 210 1887 · historical text
Public domainScottish songSong lyrics
Complete public-domain lyrics

This text comes from The Poetical Works of Robert Burns, a historical songbook transcribed on Wikisource and reproduced from the pinned revision linked below.

Verse 1

Now Nature hangs her mantle green

On every blooming tree,

And spreads her sheets o' daisies white

Out-owre the grassy lea:

Now Phœbus cheers the crystal streams,

And glads the azure skies;

But nought can glad the weary wight

That fast in durance lies.

Verse 2

Now laverocks wake the merry morn,

Aloft on dewy wing;

The merle, in his noontide bow'r,

Makes woodland echoes ring;

The mavis mild wi' many a note,

Sings drowsy day to rest:

In love and freedom they rejoice,

Wi' care nor thrall opprest.

Verse 3

Now blooms the lily by the bank,

The primrose down the brae;

The hawthorn's budding in the glen,

And milk-white is the slae:

The meanest hind in fair Scotland

May rove their sweets amang;

But I the Queen of a' Scotland,

Maun lie in prison strang.

Verse 4

I was the Queen o' bonie France,

Where happy I hae been,

Fu' lightly rase I in the morn,

As blythe lay down at e'en:

And I'm the sov'reign of Scotland,

And mony a traitor there;

Yet here I lie in foreign bands,

And never-ending care.

Verse 5

But as for thee, thou false woman,

My sister and my fae,

Grim vengeance, yet, shall whet a sword

That thro' thy soul shall gae:

The weeping blood in woman's breast

Was never known to thee;

Nor th' balm that draps on wounds of woe

Frae woman's pitying ee.

Verse 6

My son! my son! may kinder stars

Upon thy fortune shine;

And may those pleasures gild thy reign,

That ne'er wad blink on mine!

God keep thee frae thy mother's faes,

Or turn their hearts to thee:

And where thou meet'st thy mother's friend,

Remember him for me!

Verse 7

Oh! soon, to me, may summer-suns

Nae mair light up the morn!

Nae mair, to me, the autumn winds

Wave o'er the yellow corn!

And in the narrow house o' death

Let winter round me rave;

And the next flow'rs that deck the spring,

Bloom on my peaceful grave!

Credits

Written by Robert Burns

Words by Robert Burns. Historical text published in The Poetical Works of Robert Burns (1887); public domain. No claim to a modern recording or arrangement.

Source & text edition

The Poetical Works of Robert Burns (1887), “Lament of Mary Queen of Scots, on the Approach of Spring”

Every text in this 1887 collected edition is by Robert Burns (1759-1796), who died more than 230 years ago, so the text is in the public domain worldwide; the edition carries a Wikisource PD-old determination and a pre-1931 United States publication.

How to read this historical text and its source

Read the source on Wikisource

View copyright evidence · Transcription terms (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Retrieved 2026-10-25. Line spacing and section labels are adapted for reading. The displayed text follows the linked edition. Editorial notes and abstract artwork are by 52lyrics.
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