My love he built me a bonnie bower,
And clad it all with lily flower;
A brawer bower ye ne’er did see,
Than my true love he built for me.
There came a man by middle day,
He spied his sport, and went away,
And brought the King that very night,
Who brake my bower and slew my Knight.
I sewed his sheet, making my mane,
I watched the corpse myself alane;
I watched his body night and day,
No living creature came that way.
I took his body on my back,
And whiles I gaed, and whiles I
sat;
I digged a grave, and laid him in,
And happ’d him with the sod sae
green.
But think na ye my heart was sair,
When I laid the mould on his yellow
hair?
O think na ye my heart was wae,
When I turned about awa’ to gae?
No living man I’ll love again,
Since that my lovely Knight is slain;
Wi ae lock o’ his yellow hair
I’ll chain my heart for evermair!
(Old Ballad)