Poetry in Bloom: Robert (Rabbie) Burns

The Afton River - doesn't it make you want to settle down to 

a picnic lunch while listening to a minstrel singing of springtime?

In honor of April as National Poetry Month, I would like to steal a moment (and I will be stealing several more moments in the coming days) to post some of my favorite poems. Today's selection is one of my top 3 faves of all time (and, incidentally, the inspiration for my eldest daughter's name.) I added a video below and highly recommend listening to these words of the Great Scot set to music. If Spring isn't in your air yet, it will be after listening to this!

Happy Monday, dear friends!

          “Sweet Afton”     By: Robert Burns

Flow gently, sweet Afton, among thy green braes,

Flow gently, I'll sing thee a song in thy praise;

My Mary's asleep by thy murmuring stream,

Flow gently, sweet Afton, disturb not her dream.

Thou stock-dove, whose echo resounds thro' the glen,

Ye wild whistling blackbirds in yon thorny den,

Thou green-crested lapwing, thy screaming forbear,

I charge you disturb not my slumbering fair.

How lofty, sweet Afton, thy neighbouring hills,

Far mark'd with the courses of clear winding rills;

There daily I wander as noon rises high,

My flocks and my Mary's sweet cot in my eye.

How pleasant thy banks and green valleys below,

Where wild in the woodlands the primroses blow;

There oft, as mild Ev'ning leaps over the lea,

The sweet-scented birk shades my Mary and me.

Thy crystal stream, Afton, how lovely it glides,

And winds by the cot where my Mary resides,

How wanton thy waters her snowy feet lave,

As gathering sweet flowrets she stems thy clear wave.

Flow gently, sweet Afton, among thy green braes,

Flow gently, sweet river, the theme of my lays;

My Mary's asleep by thy murmuring stream,

Flow gently, sweet Afton, disturb not her dream.

          

                                                     

                                              top image from: http://roadsfromemmaus.org/2009/12/09/sweet-afton/