Dainty Davie

Melody - "Dainty Davie"
Melody - "Dainty Davie", from Dancing Masters, 1701

Top: Robert Burns, 1793, center: Merry Muses of Caledonia version, 1799; bottom: from Herd's Scots Songs, 1776

Now rosy May comes in wi' flowers
To deck her gay, green-spreading bowers;
And now comes in the happy hours
To wander wi' my Davie.
Chorus:
Meet me on the Warlock Knowe,
Dainty Davie, Dainty Davie!
There I'll spend the day wi' you,
My ain dear Dainty Davie.

2. The crystal waters round us fa'
The merry birds are lovers a',
The scented breezes round us blaw
A wandering wi my Davie.
Chorus:

3. As purple morning starts the hare,
To steal upon her early fare,
Then thro the dews I will repair
To meet my faithfu' Davie.
Chorus:

4. When day, expiring in the west,
The curtain draws o Nature's rest,
I flee to his arms I loe the best:
And that's my ain dear Davie!
Chorus:

Refrain:
O leeze me on his curly pow,
Bonie Davie, dainty Davie;
Leeze me on his curly pow,
He was my dainty Davie.

Being pursu'd by the dragoons,
Within my bed he was laid down,
And weel I wat he was worth his room
My ain dear dainty Davie.
Refrain:

2. My minnie laid him at my back,
I trow he lay na lang at that,
But turn'd, and in a verra crack
Produc'd a dainty Davie.
Refrain:

3. Then in the field amang the pease,
Behin' the house o' Cherrytrees,
Again he wan atweesh my thies,
And, splash! gaed out his gravy.
Refrain:

4. But had I goud, or had I land,
It should be a' at his command;
I'll ne'er forget what he pat, i' my hand,
It was a dainty Davie.
Refrain:

Chorus:
O leeze me on your curly pow,
Dainty Davie, dainty Davie;
Leeze me on your curly pow,
Mine ain dainty Davie.

It was in and through the window broads,
And a' the tirle wirlies o'd;
The sweetest kiss that e'er I got,
Was frae my dainty Davie.
Refrain:

2. It was down amang my dady's pease,
And underneath the cherry-trees;
O there he kist me as he pleas'd,
For he was mine ain dear Davie.
Refrain:

3. When he was chas'd by a dragoon,
Into my bed he was laid down;
I thought him wordy o' his room,
And he's ay my dainty Davie.
Refrain:

Based on a tale of the Rev. David Williamson and the daughter of the Lord and Lady Cherrytrees, in Scotch Presbyterian Eloquence Display'd, 1692. - Bruce Olson

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