I canna come ilka day to woo

Now bank and brae are clothed in green,
And scattered cowslips sweetly spring;
By Girvan's fairy haunted stream
The birdies flit on wanton wing.
To Cassills' banks when ev'ning fa's,
There with my Mary let me flee,
There catch her ilka glance of love,
The bonie blink o' Mary's e'e.
The man wha boasts o' warld's wealth,
Is aften laird o' meikle care;
But Mary she is a' my ain,
Ah, Fortune canna gie me mair!
Then let me range by Cassills' banks,
Wi' her the lassie dear to me,
And catch her ilka glance o' love,
The bonie blink o' Mary's e'e.

Brae = steep or sloping bank of a river
Ilka = every
Blink = twinkle
Meikle = much

Input by Ferdinando Albeggiani

Authorship

by Robert Burns (1759-1796)

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive)

by (Franz) Joseph Haydn (1732-1809) , "I canna come ilka day to woo", Hob. XXXIa:140bis, JHW. XXXII/3 no. 242. [voice and piano]

Date added to the website: 2009-07-14.

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