Some weight of thought, though loth, Some lines of care round both Perhaps he weaves; Some fears, a soft regret, For joys scarce known; Sweet looks we half forget; All else is flown! Ah! with what thankless heart I mourn and sing! Look, where our children start, Like a pleasant rhyme, They tell how much I owe GOLDEN TRESSED ADELAIDE. A SONG FOR A CHILD. 1831. Sing, I pray, a little song, Neither sad nor very long: It is for a little maid, Golden tresséd Adelaide! Therefore let it suit a merry, merry ear, Mother dear! Let it be a merry strain, Mother dear! Shunning e'en the thought of pain: For our gentle child will weep, If the theme be dark and deep; And We will not draw a single, single tear, Mother dear! Childhood should be all divine, Mother dear! And like endless summer shine; Gay as Edward's shouts and cries, Bright as Agnes' azure eyes: Therefore, bid thy song be merry: dost thou hear, Mother dear? HERMIONE. Thou hast beauty bright and fair, Eyes that are untouched by care: Thou hast reason quick and strong, And a voice, itself a song! What then can we still desire? Something thou dost want, O Queen! (As the gold doth ask alloy,) Tears, amidst thy laughter seen, Pity, mingling with thy joy. This is all we ask, from thee, MARIAN. Spirit of the summer breeze! Come, and fawn about her hair! Ask her why she looks so fair, When she heedeth not my sighs? Tell her, murmuring summer air, WILLIAM MOTHERWELL. 1797-1835. JEANIE MORRISON. MOTHERWELL entered the school of Mr. William Lennie, No. 8 Crichton street, Edinburgh, on the 24th of April, 1805, and left it for the High School, on the 1st of October, 1808. While at the former, he met and fell in love with Jeanie Morrison. "Jane (Jeanie) Morrison," says Mr. Lennie, writing to Motherwell's biographer, (1846,) “was the daughter of one of the most respectable brewers and corn-factors then in Alloa. She came to Edinburgh to finish her education, and was in my school with William Motherwell during the last year of his course. She was about the same age with himself, a pretty girl, and of good capacity. Her hair was of a lightish brown, approaching to fair; her eyes were dark, and had a sweet and gentle expression; her temper was mild, and her manners unassuming. Her dress was also neat and tidy. In winter, she wore a pale-blue pelisse, then the fashionable colour, and a light-coloured beaver with a feather. She made a great impression on young Motherwell, and that it was permanent his beautiful ballad shows. At the end of the season she returned to her parents at Alloa, with whom she resided till the time of her marriage. She is now a widow, with a family of three children, all of whom are grown up, and, I believe, doing well." "I had the pleasure," the biographer adds in a note, "of a slight acquaintance with this lady in after life, as Mrs. Murdoch. Her husband was a respectable merchant in this city, (Glasgow?) and died about the year 1828. She was, when I knew her, a very elegant woman in her personal appearance, and seemed to have preserved those gentle and agreeable manners for which she had been distinguished in girlhood; but it is proper to remark, that she was wholly unconscious of the ardent interest which she had excited in the mind of her boyish admirer.” Motherwell is said to have made the first draught of "JEANIE MORRISON," in his fourteenth year. The poem as it now stands was published in 1832, in an Edinburgh magazine-TAIT's, I believe. The sum paid for it was indeed munificent-Thirty Shillings! JEANIE MORRISON. I've wandered east, I've wandered west, But never, never can forget The luve o' life's young day! The fire that's blawn on Beltane e'en Where first fond luve grows cule. O dear, dear Jeanie Morrison, The thochts o' bygane years Still fling their shadows ower my path, As memory idly summons up The blithe blinks o' langsyne. 'Twas then we luvit ilk ither weel, 'Twas then we twa did part; Sweet time, sad time! twa bairns at scule, Twa bairns, and but ae heart! 'Twas then we sat on ae laigh bink, To leir ilk ither lear; And tones and looks and smiles were shed, Remembered evermair. I wonder, Jeanie, aften yet, When sitting on that bink, Cheek touchin' cheek, loof locked in loof, When baith bent down ower ae braid page, Wi' ae buik on our knee, Thy lips were on thy lesson, but My lesson was in thee. |