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Walter Scott - Brignall Banks
Work rating: Low

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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