O Helen fair! O Helen chaste! If I were with thee, I were blest, 30 Where thou lies low, and takes thy rest, On fair Kirconnell Lee. I wish my grave were growing green, A winding-sheet drawn ower my een, And I in Helen's arms lying, 35 On fair Kirconnell Lee. I wish I were where Helen lies! Night and day on me she cries; And I am weary of the skies, For her sake that died for me. 40 THE LOWLANDS OF HOLLAND. Mr. Stenhouse was informed that this ballad was composed, about the beginning of the last century, by a young widow in Galloway, whose husband was drowned on a voyage to Holland. (_Musical Museum_, ed. 1853, iv. 115.) But some of the verses appear to be old, and one stanza will be remarked to be of common occurrence in ballad poetry. A fragment of this piece was published in Herd's collection, (ii. 49.) Our copy is from Johnson's _Museum_, p. 118, with the omission, however, of one spurious and absurd stanza, while another, not printed by Johnson, is supplied from the note above cited to the new edition. Cunningham makes sense of the interpolated verses and retains them; otherwise his version is nearly the same as the present. (_Songs of Scotland_, ii. 181.) "The love that I have chosen, I'll therewith be content, The saut sea shall be frozen Before that I repent; Repent it shall I never, 5 Until the day I die, But the lowlands of Holland Hae twinn'd my love and me. "My love lies in the saut sea, And I am on the side, 10 Enough to break a young thing's heart, Wha lately was a bride; Wha lately was a bonnie bride, And pleasure in her e'e, But the lowlands of Holland 15 Hae twinn'd my love and me. "My love he built a bonnie ship, And set her to the sea, Wi' seven score brave mariners To bear her companie; 20 Threescore gaed to the bottom, And threescore died at sea, And the lowlands of Holland Hae twinn'd my love and me. "My love has built another ship 25 And set her to the main; He had but twenty mariners, And all to bring her hame; The stormy winds did roar again, The raging waves did rout, 30 And my love and his bonnie ship Turn'd widdershins about.