Sleepy Maggie
Chorus:
O! are ye sleeping, Maggie?
O! are ye sleeping, Maggie?
Let me in, for loud the linn
Is roaring o’er the warlock craigie.
Mirk and rainy is the night,
No’ a star’n in a’ the carry;
Lightnings gleam athwart the lift,
And winds drive wi’ winter’s fury.
O! are ye sleeping, Maggie &c.
Fearfu’ soughs the boortree bank,
The rifted wood roars wild and drearie;
Loud the iron yett does clank,
And cry o’ howlets makes me eerie.
O! are ye sleeping, Maggie &c.
Aboon my breath I daurna speak,
For fear I rouse your waukrife daddie;
Cauld’s the black upon my cheek,
O! rise, rise, my bonnie lady!
O! are ye sleeping, Maggie &c.
She opt the door, she let him in;
He coost aside his dreeping plaidie;
Blaw your warst, ye rain and win’,
Since, Maggie, now I’m in aside ye.
Now since ye’re waking, Maggie!
Now since ye’re waking, Maggie!
What care I for howlet’s cry,
For boortree bank, or warlock craigie.
This song was written by Robert Tannahill.
(See also “The Highland Plaid”)
The editor of
The Lyric Gems Of Scotland
says in a note in regard to “Are Ye Sleeping, Maggie”:
“Tannahill wrote this beautiful song to the air of an old song with the same title,
the words of which are now deservedly forgot.
This song was originally finished without the last verse,
but on one occasion, while entertaining his friends with it, Mr. James King asked the author,
‘Why dinna you let the drookit deevil in?’
The next night the author produced the concluding verse,
but from its wanting the poetic fervour of the first verse it was never meant to be made public;
however it has always been printed.”
From “Scotland Dances”, by Eugenia (Jeannie) Callander Sharp
(Used by permission.)