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Description: | Verse 1: 'Ye watchful guardians of the fair, Who skiff on wings of ambient air, of my Delia take a care, And represent her lover. With all the gaiety of youth, With honour justice, love and truth; Till I return, her passions soothe, For me in whispers move her.'
The 'Scots Musical Museum' is the most important of the numerous eighteenth- and nineteenth-century collections of Scottish song. When the engraver James Johnson started work on the second volume of his collection in 1787, he enlisted Robert Burns as contributor and editor. Burns enthusiastically collected songs from various sources, often expanding or revising them, whilst including much of his own work. The resulting combination of innovation and antiquarianism gives the work a feel of living tradition.
This song was written by the Scottish poet Allan Ramsay (1686-1758) and originally published in his 'Tea-Table Miscellany' (1724-7). John Glen, in 'Early Scottish Melodies' (1900), confirmed that the melody is of English origin and noted that 'The tune was long and greatly in favour in Scotland, but that does not alter its character, although it is sung to many English songs.' The original words gave the melody its name of 'Green Sleeves'. Glen concluded that 'Ramsay's adaptation does not affect either its character or nationality'. | License: | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0 | Publisher: | National Library of Scotland | Temporal: | 1787-01-01 - 1803-12-31 | Source: | Burns Scotland | Identifier: | Volume IV, song 388, page 402 - 'Green S | Go to resource |
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