Poem by John Struthers

The Vale of Clyde

ADMIRING nature’s simple charms,
  I left my humble home,
Awhile my country’s peaceful plain
  With pilgrim step to roam:
I marked the leafy summer wave
  On flowing Irvine’s side,
But richer far ’s the robe she wears
  Within the vale of Clyde.

I roamed the braes of bonnie Doon,
  The winding banks of Ayr,
Where flutters many a small bird gay,
  Blooms many a floweret fair;
But dearer far to me the stem
  That once was Calder’s pride,
And blossoms now, the fairest flower,
  Within the vale of Clyde.

Avaunt! thou life-repressing north!
  Ye withering east-winds too!
But come, thou all-reviving west,
  Breathe soft thy genial dew;
Until at length, in peaceful age,
  This lovely floweret shed
Its last green leaf upon my tomb,
  Within the vale of Clyde.

1. Dirge, to a Person who Lamented that no Monument had been erected on the Grave of Robert Burns. 1798

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