Scottish Poetry XIV

There Grew in Bonnie Scotland
by Robert Allan

There grew in bonnie Scotland
A thistle and a brier,
And aye they twined and clasped,
Like sisters kind and dear:
The rose it was sae bonnie,
It could ilk bosom charm;
The thistle spread its thorny leaves
To keep the rose frae harm.

A bonnie laddie tended
The rose baith air an' late;
He watered it, and fanned it,
And wove it with his fate;
And the leal hearts of Scotland
Prayed it might never fa',
The thistle was sae bonnie green,
The rose sae like the snaw.

But the weird sisters sat
Where Hope's fair emblems grew;
They drapt a drap upon the rose
O' bitter, blasting dew;
And aye they twined the mystic thread,
But ere their task was done,
The snaw-white shade it disappeared—
It withered in the sunl

A bonnie laddie tended
The rose baith air an' late;
He watered it, and fanned it,
And wove it with his fate; . . .
But the thistle tap it withered,—
Winds bore it far awa,
And Scotland's heart was broken
For the rose sae like the snaw!