Book of Old English Ballads, A

<p><SPAN name="link2H_4_0023" id="link2H_4_0023"></SPAN></p> <h2> The Lament of the Border Widow </h2> <p>My love he built me a bonny bower,<br/> And clad it a' wi' a lilye flower,<br/> A brawer bower ye ne'er did see,<br/> Than my true love he built for me.<br/> <br/> There came a man, by middle day,<br/> He spied his sport and went away,<br/> And brought the king that very night,<br/> Who brake my bower, and slew my knight.<br/> <br/> He slew my knight, to me so dear;<br/> He slew my knight, and poined his gear;<br/> My servants all for life did flee,<br/> And left me in extremitie.<br/> <br/> I sewed his sheet, making my mane;<br/> I watched the corpse, myself alane;<br/> I watched his body, night and day;<br/> No living creature came that way.<br/> <br/> I took his body on my back,<br/> And whiles I gaed, and whiles I sat,<br/> I digged a grave, and laid him in,<br/> And happed him with the sod so green.<br/> <br/> But think na ye my heart was sair,<br/> When I laid the moul' on his yellow hair;<br/> Think na ye my heart was wae,<br/> When I turned about, away to gae?<br/> <br/> Nae living man I'll love again,<br/> Since that my lovely knight is slain;<br/> W? ae lock of his yellow hair<br/> I'll chain my heart for evermair.<br/></p> <div style="break-after:column;"></div><br />