Robert Burns: Collected Lyrics
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Public-domain lyrics

She says she lo'es me best of a'

Robert Burns

“She says she lo'es me best of a'” as printed in The Poetical Works of Robert Burns (1887).

Robert Burns: Collected Lyrics Text 322 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

Sae flaxen were her ringlets,

Her eyebrows of a darker hue,

Bewitchingly o'erarching

Twa laughing een o' bonie blue.

Her smiling, sae wyling,

Wad make a wretch forget his woe;

What pleasure, what treasure,

Unto these rosy lips to grow!

Such was my Chloris' bonie face,

When first her bonie face I saw,

And aye my Chloris' dearest charm,

She says she lo'es me best of a'.

Verse 2

Like harmony her motion;

Her pretty ancle is a spy

Betraying fair proportion,

Wad make a saint forget the sky;

Sae warming, sae charming,

Her faultless form and gracefu' air;

Ilk feature—auld Nature

Declar'd that she could do nae mair:

Her's are the willing chains o' love,

By conquering beauty's sovereign law;

And aye my Chloris' dearest charm,

She says she lo'es me best of a'.

Verse 3

Let others love the city,

And gaudy show at sunny noon;

Gie me the lonely valley,

The dewy eve, and rising moon

Fair beaming, and streaming,

Her silver light the boughs amang;

While falling, recalling,

The amorous thrush concludes his sang:

There, dearest Chloris, wilt thou rove

By wimpling burn and leafy shaw,

And hear my vows o' truth and love,

And say thou lo'es me best of a'?

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), “She says she lo'es me best of a'”

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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