The Pride of Youth
Walter Scott · 1805
Public domain
From The Golden Treasury, selected by Francis Turner Palgrave. Walter Scott. The text is free of copyright in the United States. This copy is the poem, without the Project Gutenberg header.
Proud Maisie is in the wood,
Walking so early;
Sweet Robin sits on the bush,
Singing so rarely.
"Tell me, thou bonny bird,
When shall I marry me?"
--"When six braw gentlemen
Kirkward shall carry ye."
"Who makes the bridal bed,
Birdie, say truly?"
--"The gray-headed sexton
That delves the grave duly.
"The glowworm o'er grave and stone
Shall light thee steady;
The owl from the steeple sing
Welcome, proud lady!"