Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22.

Jockey Was a Bonny Lad

By Robert Burns (1759–1796)

(An old Scots countryside song. From The Merry Muses of Caledonia, c. 1800)

MY Jockey is a bonny lad,
A dainty lad, a merry lad,
A neat sweet pretty little lad,
An’ just the lad for me.
For when we o’r the meadows stray,	5
He’s ay sae lively, ay sae gay,
An’ aft right canty does he say
There’s nane he loes like me.
An’ he’s ay huggin’, ay dawtin’,
Ay clappin’, ay pressin’,	10
Ay squeezin’, ay kissin’,
An’ winna let me be.
I met my lad the ither day,
Friskin’ thro’ a field o’ hay,
Sayes he, “Dear Jenny, will ye stay	15
An’ crack a while wi’ me?”
“Na, Jockey lad, I darena stay,
My mither she’d miss me away,
Syne she’ll flyte an’ scauld a’ day,
An’ play she deil wi’ me.”	20
But Jockey still continued
Huggin’, dawtin’, clappin’, squeezin’, &c.
“Hoot! Jockey, see my hair is down,
An’ look, you’ve torn a’ my gown,
An’ how will I gae thro’ the town?	25
Dear laddie, tell to me.”
He never minded what I said,
But wi’ my neck an’ bosom play’d;
Tho’ I entreated, begg’d an’ pray’d
Him no to touzle me.	30
But Jockey still continued
Huggin’, dawtin’, clappin’, squeezin’,
An’ ay kissin’, kissin’, kissin’,
Till down cam we.
As breathless an’ fatigued I lay	35
In his arms among the hay,
My blood fast thro’ my veins did play
As he lay huggin’ me;
I thought my breath would never last,
For Jockey danc’d sae devilish fast;	40
But what cam o’e, I trow, at last,
There’s deil ane kens but me.
But soon he wearied of his dance,
O’ a’ his jumpin’ an’ his prance,
An’ confess’d without romance,	45
He was fain to let me be.