In that green wene Kilmeny lay, Her bosom hap’d wi’ flowerets gay; But the air was soft, and the silence deep, And bonny Kilmeny fell sound asleep. She kenned na mair, nor open’d her e’e, Till wak’d by the hymns of a far countrye. She woke on a couch of silk sae slim, All striped wi’ the bars of the rainbow’s rim; And lovely beings round were rife, Who erst had travelled mortal life; And aye they smiled and ’gan to speer, “What spirit hath brought this mortal here?” “Lang have I rang’d the world wide,” A meek and reverend fere replied; “Baith night and day I have watched the fair, Eident a thousand years and mair. Yes, I have watched o’er ilk degree, Wherever blooms feminitye; And sinless virgin, free of stain In mind and body, found I nane. Never since the banquet of time Found I a virgin in her prime, Till late this bonnie maiden I saw, As spotless as the morning snaw; Full twenty years she has lived as free As the spirits that sojourn in this countrye: I have brought her away from the snares of men, That sin or death she never may ken.” They clasped her waist, and her hands sae fair, They kissed her cheeks and they kemmed her hair; And round came many a blooming fere, Saying, “Bonnie Kilmeny, ye’re welcome here! Women are freed of the littand scorn, O blessed be the day Kilmeny was born! Now shall the land of the spirits see, Now shall it ken what a woman may be! Many lang year, in sorrow and pain, Many lang year through the world we’ve gane, Commissioned to watch fair woman-kind, For it’s they who nurse the immortal mind. We have watched their steps as the dawning shone, And deep in the greenwood walks alone; By lily bower and silken bed, The viewless tears have been o’er them shed; Have soothed their ardent minds to sleep, Or left the couch of love to weep. We have seen, we have seen! but the time maun come, And the angels will weep at the day of doom! “O would the fairest of mortal kind Aye keep these holy truths in mind, That kindred spirits their motions see, Who watch their ways with anxious e’e, And grieve for the guilt of humanitye! O, sweet to Heaven the maiden’s prayer, And the sigh that heaves a bosom sae fair! And dear to heaven the words of truth And the praise of virtue from beauty’s mouth! And dear to the viewless forms of air, The mind that kythes as the body fair. “O, bonny Kilmeny! free frae stain, If ever you seek the world again, That world of sin, of sorrow, and fear, O tell of the joys that are waiting here; And tell of the signs you shall shortly see; Of the times that are now, and the times that shall be.”