Classic Poem

Oh Mary gentle Mary let us not disagree
I took thee for my true love to share thy company
Relentless fate pursued me and sent me cross the sea
But there sweet Mary Collingwood was all the world to me
At last when I came back again after staying months away
Her absence was made up to me by the pleasure of that day
To look upon that sweet face where fell the silent tear
Recompenced the absence I'd been away a year.

2

That by gone year has perish'd with every absent day
When we all lonely hearted from each other liv'd away
The flowers bloom'd in France like to our English spring
Birds sang but Mary Collingwood wasn't by to hear them sing
Flowers bloom Birds sing at Springs return again
But none like English primroses e'er grew in France or Spain
They look all neat and smell so sweet all down among the gorse
Where Mary looks for violets in the green wood velvet moss.

3

The white thorn shews her leaf and the bud is on the brere
Where once we pluck'd wild roses at the July of the year
Where once we gather'd honey suck the finch doth build a nest
I rubb'd the prickles off the rose and plac'd it in her breast
Roses have bloom'd sae sweet and fair upon this lovely spot
Yet none so sweet as those which my lovely Mary got
Oh much I love the rural place where the sweet briar stood
But more I love the bonny face of Mary Collingwood —