Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, ed. Poems of Places: An Anthology in 31 Volumes.
Scotland: Vols. VI–VIII. 1876–79.

Nith, the River

My Nanie-o

By Allan Cunningham (1784–1842)

RED rowes the Nith ’tween bank and brae,

Mirk is the night and rainie-o,

Though heaven and earth should mix in storm,

I ’ll gang and see my Nanie-o;

My Nanie-o, my Nanie-o;

My kind and winsome Nanie-o,

She holds my heart in love’s dear bands,

And nane can do ’t but Nanie-o.

In preaching time sae meek she stands,

Sae saintly and sae bonnie-o,

I cannot get ae glimpse of grace,

For thieving looks at Nanie-o;

My Nanie-o, my Nanie-o;

The world ’s in love with Nanie-o;

That heart is hardly worth the wear

That wadna love my Nanie-o.

My breast can scarce contain my heart,

When dancing she moves finely-o;

I guess what heaven is by her eyes,

They sparkle sae divinely-o;

My Nanie-o, my Nanie-o;

The flower of Nithsdale ’s Nanie-o;

Love looks frae ’neath her lang brown hair,

And says, I dwell with Nanie-o.

Tell not, thou star at gray daylight,

O’er Tinwald-top so bonnie-o,

My footsteps ’mang the morning dew

When coming frae my Nanie-o;

My Nanie-o, my Nanie-o;

Nane ken o’ me and Nanie-o;

The stars and moon may tell ’t aboon,

They winna wrang my Nanie-o!