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Songs of Robert Burns/O, mirk, mirk is this midnight hour

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Songs of Robert Burns ~ O, mirk, mirk is this midnight hour
James C. Dick
From "The Songs by Robert Burns". A Study in Tone-Poetry. Published by Henry Frowde. London, Edinburgh, Glasgow, and New York 1903. Source: «traditionalmusic»


Page 126. TONE-POETRY OF ROBERT BURNS

No. 138. O, mirk, mirk is this midnight hour.

Tune : Lord Gregory Scots Musical Museum, 1787, No. 5.


Songs-Robert-Burns-138.png


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O mirk, mirk is this midnight hour,
    And loud the tempest's roar;
A waefu' wanderer seeks thy tower,
    Lord Gregory, ope thy door.
An exile frae her father's ha',
    And a' for loving thee;
At least some pity on me shaw,
    If love it may na be.

Lord Gregory, mind'st thou not the grove
    By bonie Irwine side,
Where first I own'd that virgin love
    I lang, lang had denied.
How aften didst thou pledge and vow
    Thou wad for aye be mine!
And my fond heart, itsel' sae true,
    It ne'er mistrusted thine.

Hard is thy heart, Lord Gregory,
    And flinty is thy breast:
Thou bolt of Heaven that flashest by,
    O, wilt thou bring me rest!



Page 127. II. LOVE : GENERAL


Ye mustering thunders from above,
Your willing victim see,
But spare and pardon my fause love
His wrangs to Heaven and me!


Source: «traditionalmusic.co.uk»

Page 398. HISTORICAL NOTES

Mo. 138. O mirk, mirk is this midnight hour. Thomson's Scotish Airs, 1798, j8. ' Written for this work by Robert Burns. Air, Lord Gregory.' Among the Dalhousie MS. in Brechin Castle. The tragic ballad of Lord Gregory, containing about sixty stanzas, better known as Fair Annie of Lochryan, is the foundation of Burns's verses. The earliest printed fragment is in Herd's Scottish Songs, 1776, i. 149, entitled The bonny lass O' Lochryan. Two double stanzas, with the tune, were engraved in the Scots Musical Museum, 1787, No. 5. This was one of the few historical ballads which made an Impression on Burns. Thomson had informed him that Dr. Wolcot had written a song on the subject, and he replied on January 26,1793, by enclosing a copy of the verses in the text A few weeks before his death, Burns touched up the song, and sent a copy to his friend Alex. Cunningham. The tune is not in print before the Scots Musical Museum, 1787, No./. According to Stenhouse, it is an old Gallwegian melody. The music is also in Urbani's Scots Songs, 1792, 1; and Dale's Scotch Songs, 1794, I'll. up.

Source: «traditionalmusic.co.uk»


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