Robert Burns: How To Know Him Part 8

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:

MY LOVE IS LIKE A RED RED ROSE

O, my love is like a red red rose That's newly sprung in June: O, my love is like the melodie That's sweetly play'd in tune.

As fair art thou, my bonnie la.s.s, So deep in love am I: And I will love thee still, my dear, Till a' the seas gang dry. [go]

Till a' the seas gang dry, my dear, And the rocks melt wi' the sun: And I will love thee still, my dear, While the sands o' life shall run.

And fare thee weel, my only love, And fare thee weel a while!

And I will come again, my love, Tho' it were ten thousand mile.

Of the songs already quoted, the germ of _Ae Fond Kiss_ lies in the first line of Robert Dodsley's _Parting Kiss_,

"One fond kiss before we part;"

_I Hae a Wife o' My Ain_, borrows with slight modification the first two lines; a model for _My Nannie O_ has been found in an anonymous eighteenth-century fragment as well as in a song of Ramsay's, but neither contributes more than the phrase which names the tune as well as the words; _The Rigs o' Barley_ was suggested by a verse of an old song:

O, corn rigs and rye rigs, O, corn rigs are bonie; And whene'er you meet a bonie la.s.s Preen up her c.o.c.kernonie.

_Handsome Nell_, _Mary Morison_, _Will Ye Go to the Indies_, _The Gloomy Night_, and _My Nannie's Awa_ are entirely original; and a comparison of their poetical quality with those having their model or starting point in an older song will show that, however brilliantly Burns acquitted himself in his task of refurbishing traditional material, he was in no way dependent upon such material for inspiration.

From what has been said of the occasions of these verses, however, it is clear that inspiration from the outside was not lacking. The traditional a.s.sociation of wine, woman, and song certainly held for Burns, nearly all his lyrics being the outcome of his devotion to at least two of these, some of them, like the following, to all three.

YESTREEN I HAD A PINT O' WINE

Yestreen I had a pint o' wine, [Last night]

A place where body saw na'; [n.o.body saw]

Yestreen lay on this breast o' mine The gowden locks of Anna. [golden]

The hungry Jew in wilderness Rejoicing o'er his manna, Was naething to my hinny bliss [honey]

Upon the lips of Anna.

Ye monarchs, tak the east and west, Frae Indus to Savannah!

Gie me within my straining grasp The melting form of Anna.

There I'll despise imperial charms, An Empress or Sultana, While dying raptures in her arms I give and take with Anna!

Awa, thou flaunting G.o.d o' day!

Awa, thou pale Diana!

Ilk star, gae hide thy twinkling ray [Each, go]

When I'm to meet my Anna.

Come, in thy raven plumage, night!

(Sun, moon, and stars withdrawn a') And bring an angel pen to write My transports wi' my Anna!

(Postscript)

The kirk and state may join, and tell To do such things I mauna: [must not]

The kirk and state may gae to h.e.l.l, And I'll gae to my Anna.

She is the sunshine o' my ee, To live but her I canna; [without]

Had I on earth but wishes three, The first should be my Anna.

Nothing could be more hopeless than to attempt to cla.s.sify Burns's songs according to the amours that occasioned them, and to seek to find a constant relation between the reality and intensity of the pa.s.sion and the vitality of the poetry. At times some relation does seem apparent, as we may discern beneath the vigor of the song just quoted a trace of a conscious attempt to brave his conscience in connection with the one proved infidelity to Jean after his marriage.

Again, in such songs as _Of a' the Airts_, _Poort.i.th Cauld_, and others addressed to Jean herself, we have an expression of his less than rapturous but entirely genuine affection for his wife.

OF A' THE AIRTS

Of a' the airts the wind can blaw, [directions]

I dearly like the west, For there the bonnie la.s.sie lives, The la.s.sie I lo'e best: [love]

There wild woods grow, and rivers row, [roll]

And mony a hill between; But day and night my fancy's flight Is ever wi' my Jean.

I see her in the dewy flowers, I see her sweet and fair: I hear her in the tunefu' birds, I hear her charm the air: There's not a bonnie flower that springs By fountain, shaw, or green; [woodland]

There's not a bonnie bird that sings, But minds me o' my Jean.

O THIS IS NO MY AIN La.s.sIE

O this is no my ain la.s.sie, Fair tho' the la.s.sie be; O weel ken I my ain la.s.sie, Kind love is in her e'e.

I see a form, I see a face, Ye weel may wi' the fairest place: It wants, to me, the witching grace, The kind love that's in her e'e.

She's bonnie, blooming, straight, and tall, And lang has had my heart in thrall; And aye it charms my very saul, [soul]

The kind love that's in her e'e.

A thief sae pawkie is my Jean, [sly]

To steal a blink, by a' unseen; [glance]

But gleg as light are lovers' e'en, [nimble, eyes]

When kind love is in the e'e.

It may escape the courtly sparks, It may escape the learned clerks; But weel the watching lover marks The kind love that's in her e'e.

POORt.i.tH CAULD

O poort.i.th cauld, and restless love, [cold poverty]

Ye wreck my peace between ye; Yet poort.i.th a' I could forgive, An' 'twere na for my Jeanie. [If 'twere not]

O why should fate sic pleasure have, [such]

Life's dearest bands untwining?

Or why sae sweet a flower as love Depend on Fortune's shining?

The warld's wealth when I think on, Its pride, and a' the lave o't,-- [rest]

My curse on silly coward man, That he should be the slave o't.

Her een sae bonnie blue betray How she repays my pa.s.sion; But prudence is her o'erword aye, [refrain]

She talks of rank and fashion.