I had a nice choir arrangement of the Turtle Dove when I taught that subject and I thought that the words were borrowed from a Robert Burns poem I had memorized as a teenager, THE RED ROSE:

Oh, my love is like a red, red rose
That's newly sprung in June
Oh, my love is a melody
That's sweetly played in tune

So fair thou art, my bonnie lass,
So deep in love am I
And I will love thee still, my dear
Till all the seas go dry

Till all the seas go dry, my dear,
And the rocks melt with the sun
And I will love the still, my dear
When the sands of life have run.

So fair thee well, my bonnie lass,
And fair thee well a while,
And I will come again my dear
Though it were ten thousand mile.

(Yes, I know this is Americanized pronunciation but I figured if I tried writing it in Burns own words I'd really mess it up.) I guess Burns is the one who refashioned the words of an old song.

HTML line breaks added. --JoeClone, 17-Jul-02.