A Rustic Love Making

As a wee change from the poems, here's a song entitled A Rustic Love Making by George Francis Savage Armstrong (1845-1906) from his Ballads Of Down (1901). Mark Thompson recently commented on his blog http://clydesburn.blogspot.com/ that I'd reminded him about Savage Armstrong's writings. Well, I'm glad he said that because I realised then that I hadn't actually posted any of his writings.

Unlike the majority of Ulster-Scots writers, Savage Armstrong was no homespun peasant. He was Professor of English and History, Queen’s College, Cork and a contender for Poet Laureate after Tennyson. He also wrote extensively on his mother’s family, the Savages of the Ards Peninsula (formerly of Portaferry Castle).

A Rustic Love Making

[He]
Noo, gie's a kiss, ye sonsie lass ...
Och, gie's a kiss fur kin'ness!
Yer beauty melts my heart like wex,
An' doits me nigh tae blin'ness.

[She]
Na! - Weel a ken the ways o' men;
The De'il fur mischief sent ye;
If yin a gied ye'd ax fur ten,
An ten wud ne'er content ye.

[He]
It's nae the merket-square ye're in,
But jist a lanesome by-way,
Saea tak' yer wee han' frae yer mooth,
An' ben' nae doon sae shyly.

[She]
Behave! The sun's ahint the brae;
A can nae langer stay, noo;
There, hau'd ye'er fingers frae my frills,
It's nae the time fur play, noo.

[He]
Yer lips ir, och, sae smooth an' swate!
An' whaur's the herm in this, noo?
Och, heth, ye're jist the rose o' June,
An' gie's a anither kiss, noo!

[She]
A tau'd ye this wud be yer game;
Ye'd keep fur aye embracin';
It's jist the ways uv a' yer kin',
Their tricks is nivver ceasin'!

[He]
Och, Natur' 't is that gi'es the law;
Mon's made tae luve the wumman,
The wumman's made fur mon tae luve
Noo, stay! There's naeyin comin'.

[She]
Luik, see! There's fow'k that gang this way
Whun gloamin'-time is nearin'
Come doon an' walk by Comber burn
That's oot o' sight an' hearin'!