RAVING WINDS AROUND HER BLOWING_POEMS AND SONGS BY ROBERT BURNS

Directory:POEMS AND SONGS

RAVING WINDS AROUND HER BLOWING

Tune—“M'Grigor of Roro's Lament.”

I composed these verses on Miss Isabella M'Leod of Raza, alluding to her feelings on the death of her sister, and the still more melancholy death of her sister's husband, the late Earl of Loudoun, who shot himself out of sheer heart-break at some mortifications he suffered, owing to the deranged state of his finances.—R.B., 1791.

RAVING winds around her blowing,

Yellow leaves the woodlands strowing,

By a river hoarsely roaring,

Isabella stray'd deploring—

“Farewell, hours that late did measure

Sunshine days of joy and pleasure;

Hail, thou gloomy night of sorrow,

Cheerless night that knows no morrow!

“O'er the past too fondly wandering,

On the hopeless future pondering;

Chilly grief my life-blood freezes,

Fell despair my fancy seizes.

“Life, thou soul of every blessing,

Load to misery most distressing,

Gladly how wouldlI resign thee,

And to dark oblivion join thee!”

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