John Anderson, My Jo
Robert Burns · 1789 · 16 lines
“John Anderson, my jo, John”
This is a song, not a poem. Burns wrote it to an existing air and meant it sung, which is why the lines are the length they are.
Burns took a bawdy old song of the same name and rewrote it into sixteen lines about growing old with someone. Two stanzas: his hair was black, now it is white; we climbed the hill together, now we go down it hand in hand. "And sleep thegither at the foot" is a grave, and it is said as gently as anything he wrote.
John Anderson, my jo, John,
When we were first acquent;
Your locks were like the raven,
Your bonie brow was brent;
But now your brow is beld, John,
Your locks are like the snaw;
But blessings on your frosty pow,
John Anderson, my jo.
John Anderson, my jo, John,
We clamb the hill thegither;
And mony a cantie day, John,
We’ve had wi’ ane anither:
Now we maun totter down, John,
And hand in hand we’ll go,
And sleep thegither at the foot,
John Anderson, my jo.
The Scots in this one
12 words, from the glossary Burns's own editions carried. On a wide screen these also sit in the margin beside the line they belong to; on a small one, tap any dotted word.
- jo
- a sweetheart
- bonie
- bonnie, pretty, beautiful
- brent
- smooth, unwrinkled
- beld
- bald
- snaw
- snow
- pow
- the poll, the head
- thegither
- together
- cantie
- cheerful, lively, jolly, merry
- wi'
- with
- ane
- one
- anither
- another
- maun
- must