Green Grow the Rushes
Green Grow the Rushes
Traditional Scottish
Two verses & chorus:
Green Grow the Rushes is performed by Andy M Stewart
on his album Robert Burns
Notes:
This is one of the most characteristic
of all Burns' songs, although one of his earliest. Founded on an old and
licentious song with the same chorus, he set it down in his "Commonplace
Book" in August 1784. During this period, Burns kept a notebook of his
thoughts and poetry known as "The First Commonplace Book" with some
rambling remarks on "the various species of young men" whom he divides into
two classes -- "the grave and the merry." The last stanza is not included in
the copy inserted in the first "Commonplace Book," therefore the presumption
is that he added it while in Edinburgh.
(From "The People's Edition of the Poetical Works of Robert Burns," as
arranged and annotated by W. Scott Douglas. Revised, corrected and condensed
by D. McNaught, Kilmaurs, Scotland, pub. 1903)
Chorus:
Green grow the rushes, O
Green grow the rushes, O
The sweetest hours that ever I spent
Are spent among the lassies, O
There's naught but care on every hand
In every hour that passes, O
What signifies the life of man
If it were not for the lassies, O
The worldly race may riches chase
And riches still may fly them, O
And though at last they catch them fast
Their hearts can ne'er enjoy them, O
Give me a cannie hour at e'en
My arms around my dearie, O
The wisest man the world e'er saw
He dearly loved the lassies, O
Old nature swears the lovely dears
Her noblest work she classes, O
Her apprentice hand she tried on man
And then she made the lassies, O