Volume III, song 232, page 241 - 'The lazy mist' - Scanned...
Volume III, song 232, page 241 - 'The lazy mist' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)
Verse 1: 'The lazy mist hangs from the brow of the hill, Concealing ye course of the dark winding rill; How languid the scenes, late so sprightly, appear, As Autumn to Winter resigns the pale year. The forests are leafless, the meadows are brown, And all the gay foppery of summer is flown: Apart let me wander, apart let me muse, How quick Time is flying, how keen Fate pursues.'
The 'Scots Musical Museum' is the most important of the numerous eighteenth- and nineteenth-century collections of Scottish song. When the engraver James Johnson started work on the second volume of his collection in 1787, he enlisted Robert Burns as contributor and editor. Burns enthusiastically collected songs from various sources, often expanding or revising them, whilst including much of his own work. The resulting combination of innovation and antiquarianism gives the work a feel of living tradition.
Burns wrote a commentary on some of the songs in the 'Museum', on the interleaving pages of his friend Robert Riddell's copy. He wrote a very short note on this piece, 'This song is mine'. He has not recorded any other information on the lyrics. The fact that he has noted this suggests that he did take some pride in this piece of work. Burns worked with the melody which suggests that it has a Scottish origin, as that was his criteria. More recently, however, this has been called into question and an Irish origin for the tune has instead been suggested.
Volume III, song 232, page 241 - 'The lazy mist' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)