Flowers of the Forest

Iona Abbey

I’ve seen the smiling

Of fortune beguiling;

I’ve felt all its favours, and found its decay;

Sweet was its blessing.

Kind its caressing

But now it is fled - fled far away.

I’ve seen the forest

Adorned the foremost,

With flowers of the fairest, most pleasant and gay;

Saw bonnie was their blooming!

Their scent the air perfuming!

But now they are withered and a’wede away.

I’ve see the morning

With gold the hills adorning,

And loud tempest storming before the mid-day.

I’ve seen Tweed’s silver streams.

Shining in the sunny beams

grow drumly and dark as he rowed on his way

Oh, fickle fortune!

Why this cruel sporting?

Oh, why still perplex us, poor sons of a day?

Nae mair your smiles can cheer me.

Nae mair your frowns can fear me.

For the flowers of the forest are a’wede away.

-Alison Rutherford Cockburn

(1712-1794)

Bagpiper at Sunset