Mudcat's forms interface managed to throw away the line breaks in my question, which made it look nonsensical (dear god, why isn't there a way to do this by email?)

So here goes with HTML tags typed in by hand.

Does anyone recognize the pattern the following ballad is is based on? It's "Daft Jamie", from Four New Songs, pub. J. McNairn, Newton Stewart (1829, presumably)

O! dark was the midnight when Hare fled away,
Not a star in the sky gave him one cheering ray,
But still now and then, would the blue lightnings glare,
And some strange cries assail him, like shrieks of despair
Over vale, over hill, I will watch thee for ill,
I will haunt all thy wanderings and follow thee still.