The Hundred Best Poems (lyrical) in the English language - second series/Thou Lingering Star

by Robert Burns

For other versions of this work, see To Mary in Heaven (Burns).

I.

THOU ling'ring star with less'ning ray,

⁠That lov'st to greet the early morn,
Again thou usher'st in the day
⁠My Mary from my soul was torn.
O Mary, dear departed shade!
⁠Where is thy place of blissful rest?
See'st thou thy lover lowly laid?
⁠Hear'st thou the groans that rend his breast?

II.

That sacred hour can I forget,

⁠Can I forget the hallow'd grove,
Where, by the winding Ayr, we met
⁠To live one day of parting love?

Eternity cannot efface
⁠Those records dear of transports past,
Thy image at our last embrace—
⁠Ah! little thought we 'twas our last!

III.

Ayr, gurgling, kiss'd his pebbled shore,

⁠O'erhung with wild woods thickening green;
The fragrant birch and hawthorn hoar
⁠'Twin'd amorous round the raptur'd scene;
The flowers sprang wanton to be prest,
⁠The birds sang love on every spray,
Till too, too soon, the glowing west
⁠Proclaim'd the speed of winged day.

IV.

Still o'er these scenes my mem'ry wakes,

⁠And fondly broods with miser-care.
Time but th' impression stronger makes,
⁠As streams their channels deeper wear.
O Mary, dear departed shade!
⁠Where is thy place of blissful rest?
See'st thou thy lover lowly laid?
⁠Hear'st thou the groans that rend his breast?