Robert Burns: Collected Lyrics
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Public-domain lyrics

My Chloris

Robert Burns

“My Chloris” as printed in The Poetical Works of Robert Burns (1887).

Robert Burns: Collected Lyrics Text 232 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

My Chloris, mark how green the groves,

The primrose banks how fair:

The balmy gales awake the flowers,

And wave thy flaxen hair.

Verse 2

The lav'rock shuns the palace gay,

And o'er the cottage sings:

For nature smiles as sweet, I ween,

To shepherds as to kings.

Verse 3

Let minstrels sweep the skilfu' string

In lordly lighted ha';

The shepherd stops his simple reed,

Blithe, in the birken shaw.

Verse 4

The princely revel may survey

Our rustic dance wi' scorn;

But are their hearts as light as ours

Beneath the milk-white thorn?

Verse 5

The shepherd, in the flowery glen,

In shepherd's phrase will woo:

The courtier tells a finer tale,

But is his heart as true?

Verse 6

These wild-wood flowers I've pu'd, to deck

That spotless breast o' thine:

The courtiers' gems may witness love―

But 'tis na love like mine.

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), “My Chloris”

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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