Volume II, song 131, page 137 - 'Woes my heart that we...
Volume II, song 131, page 137 - 'Woes my heart that we shou'd sunder' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)
Verse 1: 'With broken words and down cast eyes, Poor Colin spoke his passion tender, And parting with his Grisy cries, Ah woes my heart that we shou'd sunder; To others I am cold as snow, But kindle with thine eyes like tinder, From thee with pain I'm forc'd to go. It breaks my heart that we shou'd sunder.'
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.
A version of this tune, bearing the title 'Always my Heart that we mun sunder', appeared in Henry Playford's 'Original Scotch Tunes', published in 1700. Whilst an even earlier version, known as 'Alace this night yat we suld sinder', is known to have appeared in the Skene Manuscript (c. 1620). The words to accompany this melody were written by Allan Ramsay (1686-1758).
Volume II, song 131, page 137 - 'Woes my heart that we shou'd sunder' - Scanned from the 1853 edition of the 'Scots Musical Museum', James Johnson and Robert Burns (Edinburgh and London: W. Blackwood & Sons, 1853)