Flow Gently Sweet Afton

DESCRIPTION: "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." The singer praises the river, and bids it not to disturb Mary's sleep
AUTHOR: Words: Robert Burns
EARLIEST DATE: 1793 (The Scots Musical Museum)
KEYWORDS: river love
FOUND IN:
REFERENCES (12 citations):
Fireside-Book-of-Folk-Songs, p. 106, "Flow Gently, Sweet Afron" (1 text, 1 tune)
Heart-Songs, p. 15, "Flow Gently, Sweet Afton" (1 text, 1 tune)
Jolly-Miller-Songster-5thEd, #101, "Flow Gently, Sweet Afton" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 253, "Flow Gently Sweet Afton" (1 text)
Fuld-BookOfWorldFamousMusic, p. 228, "Flow Gently Sweet Afton"
Wolf-AmericanSongSheets, #661, p. 44, "Flow Gently Sweet Afton" (1 reference)
Dime-Song-Book #9, p. 23, "Flow Gently, Sweet Afton" (1 text)
Rodeheaver-SociabilitySongs, p. 17, "Flow Gently, Sweet Afton" (1 text, 1 tune)
National-4HClubSongBook, p. 61, "Flow Gently, Sweet Afton" (1 text, 1 tune)
Ford-SongHistories, pp 252-258, "Afton Water" (1 text)
DT, FLOWAFTN*
ADDITIONAL: James Kinsley, editor, Burns: Complete Poems and Songs (shorter edition, Oxford, 1969) #257, pp. 366-367, "Afton Water" (1 text, 1 tune)
Roud #24637
RECORDINGS:
Patricia Campbell, "Flow Gently, Sweet Afton" (Fragment: Piotr-Archive #229, recorded 09/05/2022, of only a part of the verse)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Away in a Manger" (tune)
SAME TUNE:
The Camp Fire Law (File: ACSF167C)
NOTES [253 words]: Although Burns's formal title for this was "Afton Water," most sources -- as you can see by the References -- call it "Flow Gently Sweet Afton."
Maurice Lindsay, The Burns Encyclopedia, 1959, 1970; third edition, revised and enlarged, St. Martin's Press, 1980, p. 3 says that "Currie stated that it was written in praise of Afton Water, and as a compliment to Mrs Stewart of Stair, who certainly received a copy from the poet in 1791. Gilbert Burns claimed that Mary Campbell was the heroine. Scott-Douglas agree with Gilbert. Henley and Henderson, however, also stated that the song was written as a compliment to the River Afton, which flows into the Nith near New Cumnock. From a letter to Mrs Dumlop accompanying the verses, and dated 5th February 1789, it is clear that their interpretation is the correct one, since in this letter Burns speaks of the Afton as having 'some charming, wild, romantic scenery on its banks.... I attempted a compliment of that kind to Afton as follows," then quotes the song.
Burns obviously had a tune for this, which Lindsay says "matches the lyric exquisitely," but the common melody was copyrighted in 1838 by Jonathan Edwards Spilman. Lindsay refers to not one but *two* Victorian tunes, "which would certainly have woken up the poet's Mary in some alarm."
All the above proves that the song was in existence by 1789, but Mary Campbell died in 1786, so the available records do not really indicate whether Burns wrote this song before or after the death of his beloved Mary. - RBW
Last updated in version 6.7
File: FSWB253A

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