from The Bijou Literary Annual, 1828
author: By James Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd
source date: 1828
edition published: 20170606
availability: Freely available via a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License

The Bijou;
or Annual of Literature and the Arts

compiled by William Fraser
William Pickering London
1828
pp. 26-27

An Aged Widow's Own Words

By James Hogg, the Ettrick Shepherd

O IS he gane my good auld man?
And am I left forlorn?
And is that manly heart at rest,,
The kindest e'ver was born?

We've sojourned here through hope and fear
For fifty years and three,
And ne'er in all that happy time,
Said he harsh word to me.

And mony a braw and boardly son
And daughters in their prime,
His tremling hand laid in the grave;
Lang, lang afore the time.

I dinna greet the day to see
That he to them has gane,
But O 'tis feafu' thus to be
Left in a world alane.

Wi' a poor worn and broken heart,
Whose race of joy is run,.
And scarce has little opening left,
For aught aneath the sun.

My life nor death I winna crave,
Nor fret for yet despond,
But a' my hope is in the grave
And the dear hame beyond.