WILL TOU GO TO THE INDIES, MY MARY?

Evening Star, Issue 9830, 19 October 1895, Page 2 (Supplement)

WILL TOU GO TO THE INDIES, MY MARY?

[Read l>y the author, Mr Wallace Bruce, at the unveiling of the fourth panel of the Ayr Burns statue on the 21st August, 1895.] " Will you go to the Indies, my Mary ?" Sang Robin in days long ago;" And still clear as a carol of morning His notes in sweet melody now. " Will you go to the Indies, my Mary ?" Ay, farther and fonder thy way: Beyond the soft sway of her palm trees Or rose-broidered rills of Cathay. Thy footsteps have wamleied in music ; No name. Highland Mary, like thine, From the ripple of sweet flowing Afton To Columbia's anthem of pine. Like a wide-archinc rainbow of glory. Thy fame spans the ocean to-day, •■ Ami perfumes of sweet hawthorn blossoms Float round us in billows of spray. Resplendent with faith and devotion, Thy troth is a vision of light, And 'though woven of pleasure and sorrow The girdle of love is still bright. Yon star-sprinkled " Pathway of Angels" Gleams white as when love gave it birth, But Burns and his Mary are nearer With pathway that circles the earth. Where lovers in rapture will wander, And dream the same dreams as of yore ; By the glow of the same golden sunsets, And lapping of waves on the shore. Till the stars grow pale in their journey, Till the sun is shorn of its light, And cold on the eyelids of morning Hang the darkness and dews of the night. Till then, ay, till then, and for ever, For lovers and love never die, Shall the song of our sweet Highland Mary Bind closer the earth and the sky.