by Robert Burns
Guess ye how, the jad! I could bear her, could bear her;
Guess ye how, the jad! I could bear her. 20
But a’ the niest week, as I petted wi’ care,
I gaed to the tryst o’ Dalgarnock;
But wha but my fine fickle wooer was there,
I glowr’d as I’d seen a warlock, a warlock,
I glowr’d as I’d seen a warlock. 25
But owre my left shouther I gae him a blink,
Lest neibours might say I was saucy;
My wooer he caper’d as he’d been in drink,
And vow’d I was his dear lassie, dear lassie,
And vow’d I was his dear lassie. 30
I spier’d for my cousin fu’ couthy and sweet,
Gin she had recover’d her hearin’,
And how her new shoon fit her auld schachl’t feet,
But heavens! how he fell a swearin, a swearin,
But heavens! how he fell a swearin. 35
He beggèd, for gudesake, I wad be his wife,
Or else I wad kill him wi’ sorrow;
So e’en to preserve the poor body in life,
I think I maun wed him to-morrow, to-morrow;
I think I maun wed him to-morrow. 40
Chronological List of Poems
Alphabetical List of Poems
536.
This is no my ain lassie (Song)
Tune— “This is no my house.”
Chorus — This is no my ain lassie,
Fair tho, the lassie be;
Weel ken I my ain lassie,
Kind love is in her e’re.
I SEE a form, I see a face, 5
Ye weel may wi’ the fairest place;
It wants, to me, the witching grace,
The kind love that’s in her e’e.
This is no my ain, &c.
She’s bonie, blooming, straight, and tall, 10
And lang has had my heart in thrall;
And aye it charms my very saul,
The kind love that’s in her e’e.
This is no my ain, &c.
A thief sae pawkie is my Jean, 15
To steal a blink, by a’ unseen;
But gleg as light are lover’s een,
When kind love is in her e’e.
This is no my ain, &c.
It may escape the courtly sparks, 20
It may escape the learned clerks;
But well the watching lover marks
The kind love that’s in her eye.
This is no my ain, &c.
Chronological List of Poems
Alphabetical List of Poems
537.
O bonie was yon rosy Brier (Song)
O BONIE was yon rosy brier,
That blooms sae far frae haunt o’ man;
And bonie she, and ah, how dear!
It shaded frae the e’enin sun.
Yon rosebuds in the morning dew, 5
How pure, amang the leaves sae green;
But purer was the lover’s vow
They witness’d in their shade yestreen.
All in its rude and prickly bower,
That crimson rose, how sweet and fair; 10
But love is far a sweeter flower,
Amid life’s thorny path o’ care.
The pathless, wild and wimpling burn,
Wi’ Chloris in my arms, be mine;
And I the warld nor wish nor scorn, 15
Its joys and griefs alike resign.
Chronological List of Poems
Alphabetical List of Poems
538.
Now Spring has clad the grove in green (Song)
NOW spring has clad the grove in green,
And strew’d the lea wi’ flowers;
The furrow’d, waving corn is seen
Rejoice in fostering showers.
While ilka thing in nature join 5
Their sorrows to forego,
O why thus all alone are mine
The weary steps o’ woe!
The trout in yonder wimpling burn
That glides, a silver dart, 10
And, safe beneath the shady thorn,
Defies the angler’s art —
My life was ance that careless stream,
That wanton trout was I;
But Love, wi’ unrelenting beam, 15
Has scorch’d my fountains dry.
That little floweret’s peaceful lot,
In yonder cliff that grows,
Which, save the linnet’s flight, I wot,
Nae ruder visit knows, 20
Was mine, till Love has o’er me past,
And blighted a’ my bloom;
And now, beneath the withering blast,
My youth and joy consume.
The waken’d lav’rock warbling springs, 25
And climbs the early sky,
Winnowing blythe his dewy wings
In morning’s rosy eye;
As little reck’d I sorrow’s power,
Until the flowery snare 30
O’witching Love, in luckless hour,
Made me the thrall o’ care.
O had my fate been Greenland snows,
Or Afric’s burning zone,
Wi’man and nature leagued my foes, 35
So Peggy ne’er I’d known!
The wretch whose doom is “Hope nae mair”
What tongue his woes can tell;
Within whase bosom, save Despair,
Nae kinder spirits dwell. 40
Chronological List of Poems
Alphabetical List of Poems
539.
O that’s the lassie o’ my heart (Song)
Tune— “Morag.”
O WAT ye wha that lo’es me
And has my heart a-keeping?
O sweet is she that lo’es me,
As dews o’ summer weeping,
In tears the rosebuds steeping! 5
Chorus. — O that’s the lassie o’ my heart,
My lassie ever dearer;
O she’s the queen o’ womankind,
And ne’er a ane to peer her.
If thou shalt meet a lassie, 10
In grace and beauty charming,
That e’en thy chosen lassie,
Erewhile thy breast sae warming,
Had ne’er sic powers alarming;
O that’s the lassie, &c. 15
If thou hadst heard her talking,
And thy attention’s plighted,
That ilka body talking,
But her, by thee is slighted,
And thou art all delighted; 20
O that’s the lassie, &c.
If thou hast met this Fair One,
When frae her thou hast parted,
If every other Fair One
But her, thou hast deserted, 25
And thou art broken-hearted,
O that’s the lassie o’ my heart,
My lassie ever dearer;
O that’s the queen o’ womankind,
And ne’er a ane to peer her. 30
Chronological List of Poems
Alphabetical List of Poems
540.
Inscription to Chloris
Written on the blank leaf of a copy of the last edition of my poems, presented to the Lady whom, in so many fictitious reveries of passion, but with the most ardent sentiments of real friendship, I have so often sung under the name of— “Chloris.”
‘TIS Friendship’s pledge, my young, fair Friend,
Nor thou the gift refuse,
Nor with unwilling ear attend
The moralising Muse.
Since thou, in all thy youth and charms, 5
Must bid the world adieu,
(A world ‘gainst Peace in constant arms)
To join the Friendly Few.
Since, thy gay morn of life o’ercast,
Chill came the tempest’s lour; 10
(And ne’er Misfortune’s eastern blast
Did nip a fairer flower.)
Since life’s gay sc
enes must charm no more,
Still much is left behind,
Still nobler wealth hast thou in store — 15
The comforts of the mind!
Thine is the self-approving glow,
Of conscious Honour’s part;
And (dearest gift of Heaven below)
Thine Friendship’s truest heart. 20
The joys refin’d of Sense and Taste,
With every Muse to rove:
And doubly were the Poet blest,
These joys could he improve.
R.B.
Chronological List of Poems
Alphabetical List of Poems
541.
Leezie Lindsay (Fragment of a Song)
WILL ye go to the Hielands, Leezie Lindsay,
Will ye go to the Hielands wi’ me?
Will ye go to the Hielands, Leezie Lindsay,
My pride and my darling to be.
Chronological List of Poems
Alphabetical List of Poems
542.
The Wren’s Nest (Fragment of a Song)
THE ROBIN to the Wren’s nest
Cam keekin’ in, cam keekin’ in;
O weel’s me on your auld pow,
Wad ye be in, wad ye be in?
Thou’s ne’er get leave to lie without, 5
And I within, and I within,
Sae lang’s I hae an auld clout
To rowe ye in, to rowe ye in.
Chronological List of Poems
Alphabetical List of Poems
543.
News, lassies, news (Song)
THERE’S news, lassies, news,
Gude news I’ve to tell!
There’s a boatfu’ o’ lads
Come to our town to sell.
Chorus. — The wean wants a cradle, 5
And the cradle wants a cod:
I’ll no gang to my bed,
Until I get a nod.
Father, quo’ she, Mither, quo she,
Do what you can, 10
I’ll no gang to my bed,
Until I get a man.
The wean, &c.
I hae as gude a craft rig
As made o’yird and stane; 15
And waly fa’ the ley-crap,
For I maun till’d again.
The wean, &c.
Chronological List of Poems
Alphabetical List of Poems
544.
Crowdie ever mair (Song)
O THAT I had ne’er been married,
I wad never had nae care,
Now I’ve gotten wife an’ weans,
An’ they cry “Crowdie” evermair.
Chorus. — Ance crowdie, twice crowdie, 5
Three times crowdie in a day
Gin ye crowdie ony mair,
Ye’ll crowdie a’ my meal away.
Waefu’ Want and Hunger fley me,
Glowrin’ by the hallan en’; 10
Sair I fecht them at the door,
But aye I’m eerie they come ben.
Ance crowdie, &c.
Chronological List of Poems
Alphabetical List of Poems
545.
Mally’s meek, Mally’s sweet (Song)
Chorus — Mally’s meek, Mally’s sweet,
Mally’s modest and discreet;
Mally’s rare, Mally’s fair,
Mally’s every way complete.
AS I was walking up the street, 5
A barefit maid I chanc’d to meet;
But O the road was very hard
For that fair maiden’s tender feet.
Mally’s meek, &c.
It were mair meet that those fine feet 10
Were weel laced up in silken shoon;
An’ ‘twere more fit that she should sit
Within yon chariot gilt aboon,
Mally’s meek, &c.
Her yellow hair, beyond compare, 15
Comes trinklin down her swan-like neck,
And her two eyes, like stars in skies,
Would keep a sinking ship frae wreck,
Mally’s meek, &c.
Chronological List of Poems
Alphabetical List of Poems
546.
Jockie’s taen the parting Kiss (Song)
Air— “Bonie lass tak a man.”
JOCKEY’S taen the parting kiss,
O’er the mountains he is gane,
And with him is a’ my bliss,
Nought but griefs with me remain,
Spare my Love, ye winds that blaw, 5
Plashy sleets and beating rain!
Spare my Love, thou feath’ry snaw,
Drifting o’er the frozen plain!
When the shades of evening creep
O’er the day’s fair, gladsome e’e, 10
Sound and safely may he sleep,
Sweetly blythe his waukening be.
He will think on her he loves,
Fondly he’ll repeat her name;
For where’er he distant roves, 15
Jockey’s heart is still the same.
Chronological List of Poems
Alphabetical List of Poems
547.
Verses to Collector Mitchell
FRIEND of the Poet, tried and leal,
Wha, wanting thee, might beg or steal;
Alake, alake, the meikle deil
Wi’ a’ his witches
Are at it skelpin jig and reel, 5
In my poor pouches?
I modestly fu’ fain wad hint it,
That One-pound-one, I sairly want it;
If wi’ the hizzie down ye sent it,
It would be kind; 10
And while my heart wi’ life-blood dunted,
I’d bear’t in mind.
So may the Auld year gang out moanin’
To see the New come laden, groanin’,
Wi’ double plenty o’er the loanin’, 15
To thee and thine:
Domestic peace and comforts crownin’
The hale design.
POSTSCRIPT
Ye’ve heard this while how I’ve been lickit,
And by fell Death was nearly nickit; 20
Grim loon! he got me by the fecket,
And sair me sheuk;
But by gude luck I lap a wicket,
And turn’d a neuk.
But by that health, I’ve got a share o’t, 25
But by that life, I’m promis’d mair o’t,
My hale and wee, I’ll tak a care o’t,
A tentier way;
Then farewell folly, hide and hair o’t,
For ance and aye! 30
Chronological List of Poems
Alphabetical List of Poems
Final Poems (1796)
Chronological List of Poems
Alphabetical List of Poems
548.
The Dean of Faculty: A new Ballad
A NEW BALLAD
Tune— “The Dragon of Wantley.”
DIRE was the hate at old Harlaw,
That Scot to Scot did carry;
And dire the discord Langside saw
For beauteous, hapless Mary:
But Scot to Scot ne’er met so hot, 5
Or were more in fury seen, Sir,
Than ‘twixt Hal and Bob for the famous job,
Who should be the Faculty’s Dean, Sir.
This Hal for genius, wit and lore,
Among the first was number’d; 10
But pious Bob, ‘mid learning’s store,
Commandment the tenth remember’d:
Yet simple Bob the victory got,
And wan his heart’s desire,
Which shews that heaven can boil the pot, 15
Tho’ the devil piss in the fire.
Squire Hal, besides, had in this case
Pretensions rather brassy;
For talents, to deserve a place,
Are qualifications saucy. 20
So their worships of the Faculty,
Quite sick of merit’s r
udeness,
Chose one who should owe it all, d’ye see,
To their gratis grace and goodness.
As once on Pisgah purg’d was the sight 25
Of a son of Circumcision,
So may be, on this Pisgah height,
Bob’s purblind mental vision —
Nay, Bobby’s mouth may be opened yet,
Till for eloquence you hail him, 30
And swear that he has the angel met
That met the ass of Balaam.
In your heretic sins may you live and die,
Ye heretic Eight-and-Tairty!
But accept, ye sublime Majority, 35
My congratulations hearty.
With your honours, as with a certain king,
In your servants this is striking,
The more incapacity they bring,
The more they’re to your liking. 40
Chronological List of Poems
Alphabetical List of Poems
549.