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Description: | 'While hopeless and almost reduc'd to despair, Yet even in my anguish some comfort I find; Tho' remov'd from the smiles of the maid I admire, Her idea alone can give ease to my mind. Why then should I pine, and indulge thus my grief, Tho' Fortune at present seems rather to frown, with calm resignation I'll wait for relief, She yet with success all my wishes may crown.'
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 and melody purport to be by Dr Robert Mundell who, according to John Glen (1900), was the Rector of a Dumfriesshire Academy. Although Burns was responsible for collecting and revising most of the songs in the 'Museum' that were not his own, Mundell went directly to Johnson with this composition. | 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 393, page 406 - 'While h | Go to resource |
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