Flow gently, sweet Afton, among thy green braes,
Flow gently, I'll sing thee a song in thy praise;
My Mary's asleep by thy murmuring stream,
Flow gently, sweet Afton, disturb not her dream.

Thou stock dove whose echo resounds thro' the glen,
Ye wild whistling blackbirds in yon thorny den,
Thou green-crested lapwing, thy screaming forbear,
I charge you disturb not my slumbering Fair.

How lofty, sweet Afton, thy neighbouring hills, 
Far marked with the courses of [clear]1, winding rills; 
There daily I wander as noon rises high, 
My flocks and my Mary's sweet cot in my eye. 

How pleasant thy banks and green valleys below, 
Where, wild in the woodlands, the primroses blow; 
There oft, as mild ev'ning weeps over the lea, 
The sweet-scented birk shades my Mary and me.

Thy crystal stream, Afton, how lovely it glides,
And winds by the cot where my Mary resides;
How wanton thy waters her snowy feet lave,
As, gathering sweet flowerets, she stems thy clear wave.

Flow gently, sweet Afton, among thy green braes,
Flow gently, sweet River, the theme of my lays;
My Mary's asleep by thy murmuring stream,
Flow gently, sweet Afton, disturb not her dream.

B. Britten sets stanzas 1-2, 5-6
H. Hopekirk sets stanzas 1-3, 6

About the headline (FAQ)

View original text (without footnotes)
¹ Hopekirk: "sweet"

Text Authorship:

• by Robert Burns (1759 - 1796), no title [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]

Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):

• by David Arditti (b. 1964), "Sweet Afton", op. 1 no. 6, first performed 1994, from Burns Songs, no. 6 [sung text not yet checked]
• by Agathe Ursula Backer-Grøndahl (1847 - 1907), "Afton Water", op. 51 no. 12 (1902), published 1902 [ voice and piano ], from Tolv Folkeviser og Melodier fra fremmede Lande, no. 12 [sung text not yet checked]
• by (Edward) Benjamin Britten (1913 - 1976), "Afton Water", op. 92 no. 5 (1975), stanzas 1-2,5-6, from A Birthday Hansel, no. 5 [sung text checked 1 time]
• by Percy Aldridge Grainger (1882 - 1961), "Afton Water", 1898 [ tenor, piano ] [sung text not yet checked]
• by Helen Hopekirk (1856 - 1945), "Flow gently, sweet Afton", subtitle: "Afton water", published 1905, copyright © 1905, stanzas 1-3,6 [ voice and piano ], Oliver Ditson Company [sung text checked 1 time]

Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:

• Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Wilhelm Christoph Leonhard Gerhard (1780 - 1858) , "Mary schlummert", first published 1840? ; composed by Wilhelm Baumgartner, Moritz Hauptmann.
  • Go to the text.
    
• Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by L. G. Silbergleit , "Ström' leise" [an adaptation] ; composed by Carl Goldmark, George Henschel, Robert von Hornstein.
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• Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Anonymous/Unidentified Artist ; composed by Carl Martin Reinthaler.
  • Go to the text. [Note: the text is not in the database yet.]
    

Other available translations, adaptations or excerpts, and transliterations (if applicable):

• CZE Czech (Čeština) (Josef Václav Sládek) , "Na Aftonu"
• FRE French (Français) (Pierre Mathé) , copyright © 2019, (re)printed on this website with kind permission
• HUN Hungarian (Magyar) (József Lévay) , "Folyj csendesen, Afton"

Research team for this page: Jean Branch , Garrett Medlock [Guest Editor]

This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 24
Word count: 197