Robert Burns: Collected Lyrics
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Public-domain lyrics

Streams that glide

Robert Burns

“Streams that glide” as printed in The Poetical Works of Robert Burns (1887).

Robert Burns: Collected Lyrics Text 339 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

Streams that glide in orient plains

Never bound by winter's chains!

Glowing here on golden sands,

There commix'd with foulest stains

From tyranny's empurpled bands:

These, their richly-gleaming waves,

I leave to tyrants and their slaves;

Give me the stream that sweetly laves

The banks by Castle Gordon.

Verse 2

Spicy forests, ever gay,

Shading from the burning ray

Hapless wretches sold to toil,

Or the ruthless native's way,

Bent on slaughter, blood, and spoil:

Woods that ever verdant wave,

I leave the tyrant and the slave,

Give me the groves that lofty brave

The storms, by Castle Gordon.

Verse 3

Wildly here without control,

Nature reigns and rules the whole;

In that sober pensive mood,

Dearest to the feeling soul,

She plants the forest, pours the flood;

Life's poor day I'll musing rave,

And find at night a sheltering cave,

Where waters flow and wild woods wave,

By bonie Castle Gordon.

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), “Streams that glide”

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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