by Robert Burns
sonsie: jolly, ample
souple: supple, flexible
spail: splinters
spairge: to soil, bespatter
spean: to wean
speel: to climb
spence: parlour
spier: to ask, inquire
splore: a frolic, a riot
squttle: to squat
staw: stole
steek: to shut
stell: a still
sten: to leap, to rear as a horse
stents: tributes
stoor: hollow sounding
stoure: dust in motion, excitement, commotion
stowp: measuring jug for serving liquids
strunt: to swagger
sugh: light breeze, heavy sigh
swaird: sward, smooth grass
swat: sweated
swatch: sample
swats: good ale
swith: swift
syne: since, then
tapsalteerie: topsy-turvy
tauk: talk
tauted: matted together
tent: field pulpit, to take care
tentless: careless
teugh: tough
thairm: intestines
thegither: together
thiggin: begging
thole: to suffer
thowes: thaws
thrang: throng, busy
thrave: twenty-four sheaves of corn
thrissle: thistle
thy-lane: on your own
tine: to lose
tint: lost
tirl: to uncover, to strip
tirlan: uncovering
tittlan: whispering
toolzie: fight, squabble
toom: empty
tow: rope
towmont: year (a twelvemonth)
towzie: shaggy, unkempt
toy: old-fashioned woman’s headdress
trow: to believe
twa: two
twalt: the twelfth
twathree: two or three, a few
twin: to part, give up
tyke: dog
unco: very, uncouth, strange
usquabae: water of life, whisky
vauntie: vain, proud
wad: would, to wager
wae: woe, sad
waesucks: alas
wale: choice, the best
walie: large, jolly
wame: the belly
wanchancie: unlucky
war’d: to lay out
warl (warld): world
warly: worldly
wat: know, wet
water-fit: river mouth
wauken: to wake
waur: worse, to worst
wean (weanies): child
weel: well
westlin: westerly
whang: leather string, piece of cheese or bread, to flog
whittle: knife
whun-stane: whinstone, any hard, compact rock, such as
basalt whyles: sometimes
wight: strong, clever
wimplin: meandering
winnock: window
winnock-bunker: window-seat
wonner: wonder
worm: spiral tube on a still
wud: mad
wylecoat: flannel vest
wyling: beguiling, enticing
wyte: blame
yell: dry
yestreen: yesterday evening
yett: gate
yeukin: itching
yill: ale
Index of First Lines
Ae fond kiss, and then we sever 104
Come boat me o’er, come row me o’er 77
Fair fa’ your honest, sonsie face 74
Fareweel to a’ our Scottish fame 103
Flow gently, sweet Afton, among thy green braes 86
For Lords or kings I dinna mourn 84
Green grow the rashes, O 16
Ha! whare ye gaun, ye crowlan ferlie 42
Here lie Willie Michie’s banes 79
I hae a wife o’ my ain 105
I lang hae thought, my youthfu’ friend 65
Is there a whim-inspir’d fool 72
Is there for honest poverty 113
It was upon a Lammas night 4
John Anderson my jo, John 92
Kind Sir, I’ve read your paper through 87
Lament in rhyme, lament in prose 11
Lang hae we parted been 89
Let other Poets raise a fracas 51
Long life, my lord, an’ health be yours 69
My father was a farmer upon the Carrick border, O 13
My heart is a breaking, dear Tittie 80
My heart’s in the Highlands, my heart is not here 91
My love she’s but a lassie yet 90
My luve is like a red, red rose 109
My Peggy’s face, my Peggy’s form 76
Now westlin winds, and slaught’ring guns 6
O Logan, sweetly didst thou glide 106
O Mary, at thy window be 3
O once I lov’d a bonny lass 1
O rattlin, roarin Willie 78
O Thou, wha in the heavens dost dwell 18
O Thou, whatever title suit thee 56
Sae flaxen were her ringlets 110
Scots, wha hae wi’ Wallace bled 108
Should auld acquaintance be forgot 82
Some have meat and cannot eat 115
There was three kings into the east 8
Thou’s welcome wean, mischanter fa’ me 22
To you, Sir, this summons I’ve sent 61
’Twas on a Monday morning 116
Upon a simmer Sunday morn 31
Wae worth thy pow’r, thou cursed leaf 68
Was e’er puir Poet sae befitted 26
Wee, modest, crimson-tipped flow’r 63
Wee, sleeket, cowran, tim’rous beastie 40
When chapman billies leave the street 93
When chill November’s surly blast 27
When maukin bucks, at early f–s 112
Ye banks and braes o’ bonie Doon 101
Ye Irish lords, ye knights an’ squires 44
Ye Jacobites by name, give an ear, give an ear 102
Ye jovial boys who love the joys 24
∗ This is partly composed on the plan of an old song known by the same name. [RB]
∗ Shakespeare’s Hamlet. [RB]
∗ This was wrote before the Act anent the Scotch distilleries, of session 1786; for which Scotland and the Author return their most grateful thanks. [RB]
∗ A worthy old Hostess of the Author’s in Mauchline, where he sometimes studies Politics over a glass of guid auld Scotch Drink. [RB]
∗ Vide Milton, [Paradise Lost] Book 6th. [RB]
∗ Some Sing, Kiss in place of Cup. [RB]
∗ It is a well known fact that witches, or any evil spirits, have no power to follow a poor wight any farther than the middle of the next running stream. – It may be proper likewise to mention to the benighted traveller, that when he falls in with bogles, whatever danger there may be in his going forward, there is much more hazard in turning back. [RB]
Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Copyright Page
Contents
Introduction
Poems of Robert Burns
O Once I Lov’d
Mary Morison
It Was Upon a Lammas Night
Song Composed in August
John Barleycorn∗
Poor Mailie’s Elegy
My Father Was a Farmer
Green Grow the Rashes. A Fragment
Holy Willie’s Prayer
A Poet’s Welcome to His Love-Begotten Daughter; The First Instance that Entitled Him to the Venerable Appellation of Father
The Fornicator. A New Song
On Burns’ Horse Being Impounded
Man Was Made to Mourn. A Dirge
The Holy Fair
To a Mouse On Turning Her up in Her Nest with the Plough, November 1785
To a Louse On Seeing One on
a Lady’s Bonnet at Church
The Author’s Earnest Cry and Prayer,∗ to the Right Honorable and Honorable, the Scotch Representatives in the House of Commons
Scotch Drink
Address to the Deil
Extempore to Gavin Hamilton. Stanzas on Naething
To a Mountain Daisy On Turning One Down with the Plough in April – 1786
Epistle to a Young Friend May – 1786
Lines Written on a Bank-Note
Address of Beelzebub
A Bard’s Epitaph
To a Haggis
My Peggy’s Face
O’er the Water to Charlie
Rattlin, Roarin Willie
On a Schoolmaster
Tam Glen
Auld Lang Syne
Elegy on the Year 1788
Afton Water
To a Gentleman Who Had Sent Him a Newspaper and Offered to Continue It Free of Expense
Lassie Lie Near Me
My Love She’s But a Lassie Yet
Farewell to the Highlands
John Anderson My Jo
Tam o’ Shanter. A Tale
The Banks o’ Doon
Ye Jacobites By Name
Fareweel to a’ Our Scottish Fame
Ae Fond Kiss
I Hae a Wife o’ My Ain
Logan Water
Scots Wha Hae
A Red, Red Rose
Sae Flaxen Were Her Ringlets
Ode to Spring
Is There for Honest Poverty
Kirkcudbright Grace
Charlie He’s My Darling
Glossary
Index of First Lines
Footnotes
John Barleycorn∗
Page 8
The Holy Fair
Page 37
The Author’s Earnest Cry and Prayer,∗ to the Right Honorable and Honorable, the Scotch Representatives in the House of Commons
Page 44
Page 48
Address to the Deil
Page 59
Auld Lang Syne
Page 82
Tam o’ Shanter. A Tale
Page 99