> Folk Music > Songs > Flow Gently Sweet Afton

Flow Gently Sweet Afton

[ Roud 24637 ; Ballad Index FSWB253A ; Bodleian Roud 24637 ; DT FLOWAFTN ; Mudcat 11200 , 73257 ; Robert Burns]

Dick Gaughan sang Afton Water in a 1991 performance on a Burns’ Night show on Scottish Television STV’s Supperman programme. It was included in 2025 on the DVD of his 2025 box set R/evolution 1969-1984.

Gill Bowman sang Sweet Afton in 1994 on her Greentrax CD of love songs of Robert Burns, Toasting the Lassies.

Tony Cuffe sang Sweet Afton on Linn’s 1996 CD The Complete Songs of Robert Burns Volume 1.

Norhern Flyway sang Inge Thompson’s song Lost Lapwing, including extracts from Robert Burns’ Sweet Afton, in 2018 on their Hudson album Norhtern Flyway.

Heather Cartwright sang Sweet Afton on a November 2025 download single.

Lyrics

Gill Bowman sings Sweet Afton

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 mark’d with the courses of clear 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 leaps 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 flowrets 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!