Celtic Lyrics Corner > Artists & Groups > Anam > Riptide > Westlin' Winds

Westlin' Winds     Credits: Traditional; lyrics by Robert Burns; arranged by Brian Ó hEadhra, Aimée Leonard, Treasa Harkin & Neil Davey     Appears On: Riptide     Language: English     Other Versions: "Song For Autumn" on Old Blind Dogs' album New Tricks "Westlin' Winds" on Tannahill Weavers' album Epona

Lyrics:

Now Westlin' winds and slaughtering guns
Bring autumn's pleasant weather
The moorcock springs on whirring wings
Among the blooming heather
Now waving grain wild o'er the plain
Delights the weary farmer
And the moon shines bright when I rove at night
To muse upon my charmer

The partridge loves the fruitful fells
The plover loves the mountains
The woodcock haunts the lonely dells
The soaring heron, the fountains
Through lofty groves the cushat roves
The path of man to shun it
The hazel bush o'erhangs the thrush
The spreading thorn, the linnet

Thus every kind their pleasure find
The savage and the tender
Some social join, some leagues combine
Some solitary wander
Avaunt, away, the cruel sway
Tyrannic man's dominion
The sportsman's joy, the murdering cry
The fluttering gory pinion

But Peggy dear, the evening's clear
Swift flies the skimming swallow
The sky is blue, the fields in view
All fading green and yellow
Come, let us stray our gladsome way
And view the charms of nature
The rustling corn, the fruited thorn
And every happy creature

We'll gently walk and sweetly talk
'Til the silent moon shines clearly
I'll grasp thy waist and fondly press
Swear how I love thee dearly
Not vernal showers to budding flowers
Nor autumn to the farmer
So dear can be as thou to me
My fair, my lovely charmer