The Braes o Yarrow (Child 214)

‘I dreamed a dreary dream this night,
That fills my heart wi sorrow;
I dreamed I was pouing the heather green
Upon the braes of Yarrow.

‘O true-luve mine, stay still and dine,
As ye ha done before, O;’
‘O I’ll be hame by hours nine,
And frae the braes of Yarrow.’

I dreamed a dreary dream this night,
That fills my heart wi sorrow;
I dreamed my luve came headless hame,
O frae the braes of Yarrow!

‘O true-luve mine, stay still and dine,
As ye ha done before, O;’
‘O I’ll be hame by hours nine,
And frae the braes of Yarrow.’

‘O are ye going to hawke,’ she says,
‘As ye ha done before, O?
Or are ye going to weild your brand,
Upon the braes of Yarrow?’

‘O I am not going to hawke,’ he says,
‘As I have done before, O,
But for to meet your brother Jhon,
Upon the braes of Yarrow.’

As he gade down yon dowy den,
Sorrow went him before, O;
Nine well-wight men lay waiting him,
Upon the braes of Yarrow.

‘I have your sister to my wife,
‘Ye’ think me an unmeet marrow;
But yet one foot will I never flee
Now frae the braes of Yarrow.’

‘Than’ four he killd and five did wound,
That was an unmeet marrow!
‘And he had weel nigh wan the day
Upon the braes of Yarrow.’

‘Bot’ a cowardly ‘loon’ came him behind,
Our Lady lend him sorrow!
And wi a rappier pierced his heart,
And laid him low on Yarrow.

‘Now Douglas’ to his sister’s gane,
Wi meikle dule and sorrow:
‘Gae to your luve, sister,’ he says,
‘He’s sleeping sound on Yarrow.’

As she went down yon dowy den,
Sorrow went her before, O;
She saw her true-love lying slain
Upon the braes of Yarrow.

‘She swoond thrice upon his breist
That was her dearest marrow;
Said, Ever alace and wae the day
Thou wentst frae me to Yarrow!’

She kist his mouth, she kaimed his hair,
As she had done before, O;
She ‘wiped’ the blood that trickled doun
Upon the braes of Yarrow.

Her hair it was three quarters lang,
It hang baith side and yellow;
She tied it round ‘her’ white hause-bane,
‘And tint her life on Yarrow.’