Highland Mary
written in 1792
Highland Mary - fact Summary
About Mary Campbell
This lyric elegy records Robert Burns’s mourning for Mary Campbell, the real woman often called Highland Mary. Set beside the Montgomery castle and its springtime landscape, the speaker recalls a tender courtship, a promised reunion, and Mary’s sudden death. The poem contrasts bright pastoral memory with cold grave imagery, ending with the poet’s vow that her love will live on in his heart. It reflects Burns’s personal grief and idealized remembrance of a brief, intense relationship.
Read Complete AnalysesYe banks, and braes, and streams around The castle o' Montgomery! Green be your woods, and fair your flowers, Your waters never drumlie: There Simmer first unfauld her robes, And there the langest tarry; For there I took the last Farewell O' my sweet Highland Mary. How sweetly bloom'd the gay, green birk, How rich the hawthorn's blossom, As underneath their fragrant shade, I clasp'd her to my bosom! The golden Hours on angel wings, Flew o'er me and my Dearie; For dear to me, as light and life, Was my sweet Highland Mary. Wi' mony a vow, and lock'd embrace, Our parting was fu' tender; And, pledging aft to meet again, We tore oursels asunder; But oh! fell Death's untimely frost, That nipt my Flower sae early! Now green's the sod, and cauld's the clay That wraps my Highland Mary! O pale, pale now, those rosy lips, I aft hae kiss'd sae fondly! And clos'd for aye, the sparkling glance That dwalt on me sae kindly! And mouldering now in silent dust, That heart that lo'ed me dearly! But still within my bosom's core Shall live my Highland Mary.
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