swain quotes

O the broom, the bonnie, bonnie broom, The broom of Cowdenknowes; I wish I were with my dear swain, With his pipe and my yowes.

-Ballads
'The Broom of Cowdenknowes', opening lines.

Be just, my lovely swain, and do not take Freedoms you'll not to me allow; Or give Amynta so much freedom back That she may rove as well as you. Let us then love upon the honest square, Since interest neither have designed. For the sly gamester, who ne'er plays me fair, Must trick for trick expect to find.

- Brendan Francis Behan
  Poems upon Several Occasions,'To Lysander, on some Verses he writ, and asking more for his Heart than'twas worth'.

Sweet Auburn, loveliest village of the plain, Where health and plenty cheered the labouring swain.

- Oliver Goldsmith
  The Deserted Village, l.1^2.