The Banks o' Doon
Robert Burns · 1791 · 16 lines
“Ye banks and braes o’ bonie Doon”
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.
Printed in older editions as The Banks O’ Doon—Third Version.
Burns wrote three versions of this; the third is the one that is sung, fitted to the tune "Caledonian Hunt's Delight". The Doon is the river at Alloway where he was born, and the poem is the oldest trick in the book done perfectly: the birds and the roses carry on being beautiful, entirely indifferent to the woman telling us about them.
Ye banks and braes o’ bonie Doon,
How can ye bloom sae fresh and fair?
How can ye chant, ye little birds,
And I sae weary fu’ o’ care!
Thou’ll break my heart, thou warbling bird,
That wantons thro’ the flowering thorn:
Thou minds me o’ departed joys,
Departed never to return.
Aft hae I rov’d by Bonie Doon,
To see the rose and woodbine twine:
And ilka bird sang o’ its Luve,
And fondly sae did I o’ mine;
Wi’ lightsome heart I pu’d a rose,
Fu’ sweet upon its thorny tree!
And may fause Luver staw my rose,
But ah! he left the thorn wi’ me.
The Scots in this one
10 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.
- o'
- of
- bonie
- bonnie, pretty, beautiful
- sae
- so
- fu'
- full
- aft
- oft
- hae
- have
- luve
- love
- wi'
- with
- fause
- false
- staw
- stole