Robert Burns: Collected Lyrics

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Public-domain lyrics

To Mary ("Could aught of song declare my pains")

“To Mary ("Could aught of song declare my pains")” as printed in The Poetical Works of Robert Burns (1887).

Robert Burns: Collected Lyrics Text 456 1887 · historical text

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

Could aught of song declare my pains,

Could artful numbers move thee,

The Muse should tell, in labour'd strains,

O Mary, how I love thee!

Verse 2

They who but feign a wounded heart

May teach the lyre to languish;

But what avails the pride of art,

When wastes the soul with anguish?

Verse 3

Then let the sudden bursting sigh

The heart-felt pang discover;

And in the keen, yet tender eye,

O read th' imploring lover!

Verse 4

For well I know thy gentle mind

Disdains art's gay disguising;

Beyond what fancy e'er refin'd,

The voice of nature prizing.

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