I'm A Rover
This is a (relatively) popular Scottish night-visiting song that I picked up playing around various folk clubs. In Folk Songs and Ballads of Scotland Ewan MacColl notes that it is ‘almost certainly’ related to The Lover’s Ghost; ‘here, however, the supernatural part of the plot has almost entirely disappeared’.
Lyrics
Though the night be as dark as dungeon, not a star can be seen above
I will be guided without a stumble, into the arms of my own true love
Chorus: I'm a rover, seldom sober, I'm a rover of high degree
It's when I'm drinkin' I'm always thinkin' how to gain my love's company
He stepped up to her bedroom window, kneeling gently upon a stone
He whispers through her bedroom window, my darling dear do you lie alone?
Chorus
It's only me your own true lover, open the door and let me in
For I have come on a long nights journey and I'm near drenched to the skin
Chorus
She opened the door with the greatest pleasure, she opened the door and she let him in
They both shook hands and embraced each other, until the morning they lay as one
Chorus
The cocks were crawin’ the birds were whistling, streams ran freely about the brae
Remember lass I’m a ploughboy laddie, and the farmer I must obey
Chorus
Now my love I must go and leave thee, though the hills they lie high above
But I will climb them with the greatest pleasure, since I’ve been in the arms of my own true love
Chorus
