Volume II, song 184, pages 191 and 192 - 'Absence' -...
Volume II, song 184, pages 191 and 192 - 'Absence' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)
Verse 1 (a song in the manner of Shenstone): 'Ye Rivers so limp'd and clear, Who reflect, as in cadence you flow, all the beauties that vary the year, All the flow'rs on your margins that grow: How blest on your banks cou'd I dwell: Were Melissa the pleasure to share, And teach your sweet echoes to tell, With what fondness I doat on the fair.'
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 writes in his commentary upon this song collection, 'this song and air (are) both by Dr Blacklock'. Thomas Blacklock was a poet and author from the Dumfries area and a close friend of Burns. He wrote it specifically for inclusion in the 'Museum' and presented it to James Johnson. Glen (1900) comments, 'The melody is pretty, and in a nice flowing style'.
Volume II, song 184, pages 191 and 192 - 'Absence' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)