Willie’s Lyke-Wake
No: 25; variant: 25C
- 'O WILLIE, Willie, what makes thee so sad?'
And the sun shines over the valley
'I have loved a lady these seven years and mair.'
Down amang the blue flowers and the yellow
- 'O Willie, lie down as thou were dead,
And lay thy winding-sheet down at thy head.
- 'And gie to the bellman a belling-great,
To ring the dead-bell at thy love's bower-yett.'
- He laid him down as he were dead,
And he drew the winding-sheet oer his head.
- He gied to the bellman a belling-great,
To ring the dead-bell at his love's bower-yett.
- When that she came to her true lover's gate,
She dealt the red gold and all for his sake.
- And when that she came to her true lover's bower,
She had not been there for the space of half an hour,
- Till that she cam to her true lover's bed,
And she lifted the winding-sheet to look at the dead.
- He took her by the hand so meek and sma,
And he cast her over between him and the wa.
- 'Tho all your friends were in the bower,
I would not let you go for the space of half an hour.
- 'You came to me without either horse or boy,
But I will send you home with a merry convoy.'