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Walter Scott - The Outlaw
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O, Brignall banks are wild and fair,   
  And Greta woods are green,   
And you may gather garlands there,   
  Would grace a summer queen:   
And as I rode by Dalton Hall,     
  Beneath the turrets high,   
A Maiden on the castle wall   
  Was singing merrily:—   
  
`O, Brignall banks are fresh and fair,   
  And Greta woods are green!   
I`d rather rove with Edmund there   
  Than reign our English Queen.`   
  
`If, Maiden, thou wouldst wend with me   
  To leave both tower and town,   
Thou first must guess what life lead we,   
  That dwell by dale and down:   
And if thou canst that riddle read,   
  As read full well you may,   
Then to the green-wood shalt thou speed   
  As blithe as Queen of May.`   
  
Yet sung she, `Brignall banks are fair,   
  And Greta woods are green!   
I`d rather rove with Edmund there   
  Than reign our English Queen.   
  
`I read you by your bugle horn   
  And by your palfrey good,   
I read you for a Ranger sworn   
  To keep the King`s green-wood.`   
`A Ranger, Lady, winds his horn,   
  And `tis at peep of light;   
His blast is heard at merry morn,   
  And mine at dead of night.`   
  
Yet sung she, `Brignall banks are fair,   
  And Greta woods are gay!   
I would I were with Edmund there,   
  To reign his Queen of May!   
  
`With burnish`d brand and musketoon   
  So gallantly you come,   
I read you for a bold Dragoon,   
  That lists the tuck of drum.`   
`I list no more the tuck of drum,   
  No more the trumpet hear;   
But when the beetle sounds his hum,   
  My comrades take the spear.   
  
`And O! though Brignall banks be fair,   
  And Greta woods be gay,   
Yet mickle must the maiden dare,   
  Would reign my Queen of May!   
  
`Maiden! a nameless life I lead,   
  A nameless death I`ll die;   
The fiend whose lantern lights the mead   
  Were better mate than I!   
And when I`m with my comrades met   
  Beneath the green-wood bough,   
What once we were we all forget,   
  Nor think what we are now.`   
  
Chorus

Yet Brignall banks are fresh and fair,   
  And Greta woods are green,   
And you may gather flowers there   
  Would grace a summer queen.
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