I hung my harp upon the willows
When I first made this harbour town
My broken heart by fair Eliza
Still fresh and raw when I came to town
I learned a trade from Alexander
A scoundrel of the first degree
And within the year I was so despondent
That Doctor Fleming well knew me
Oh Eglinton floating on the water
Oh Eglinton the rose was there for me
I hung my harp high upon the willows
Of Irvine town by the sea
On Hogmanay I burned the work down
I found myself without a crown
Oh but I had more than any silver
Cos I had a friend in Richard Brown
In Eglinton wood we'd wander
On the Drukken Steps I would recite
Take your harp down from the willows
Said Richard Brown and he was right
Oh Eglinton floating on the water
Oh Eglinton the rose is there for me
I Took my harp down from the willows
Richard Brown I bow to thee (x3)
Read more about this topic: Robert Burns And The Eglinton Estate, The Drukken Steps in Poetry and Music
Famous quotes containing the words hung, harp and/or willows:
“It was such a leafy wilderness; a place for fauns and satyrs, and where bats hung all day to the rocks, and at evening flitted over the water, and fireflies husbanded their light under the grass and leaves against the night.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Two touch the string,
The harp is dumb.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“The imaged word, it is that holds
Hushed willows anchored in its glow.
It is the unbetrayable reply
Whose accent no farewell can know.”
—Hart Crane (1899–1932)