A more remarkable case of patchwork is _A Red, Red Rose_. Antiquarian
research has discovered in chap-books and similar sources four songs,
from each of which a stanza, in some such form as follows, seems to
have proved suggestive to Burns:

(1) Her cheeks are like the Roses
That blossom fresh in June,
O, she's like a new strung instrument
That's newly put in tune.

(2) Altho' I go a thousand miles
I vow thy face to see,
Altho' I go ten thousand miles
I'll come again to thee, dear Love,
I'll come again to thee.

(3) The seas they shall run dry,
And rocks melt into sands;
Then I'll love you still, my dear,
When all those things are done.

(4) Fare you well, my own true love,
And fare you well for a while,
And I will be sure to return back again,
If I go ten thousand mile.

The genealogy of the lyric is still more complicated than these
sources imply, but the specimens given are enough to show the nature
of the ore from which Burns extracted the pure gold of his well-known
song: