T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22.
The Fornicator
By Robert Burns (17591796)(From The Merry Muses of Caledonia) |
YOU Jovial boys who love the joys, | |
The blessfu’ joys of lovers; | |
An’ dare avow’t wi’ daintless brow, | |
Whate’er the lass discovers; | |
I pray draw near, and you shall hear, | 5 |
An’ welcome in a frater, | |
I’ve lately been on quarantine, | |
A proven Fornicator. | |
Before the congregation wide, | |
I past the muster fairly; | 10 |
My handsome Betsey by my side, | |
We gat our ditty rarely. | |
My downcast eye, by chance did spy, | |
What made my mouth to water, | |
Those limbs sae clean, where I between | 15 |
Commenced Fornicator. | |
Wi’ rueful face and signs o’ grace, | |
I paid the buttock hire; | |
The night was dark, and thro’ the park | |
I cou’dna but convoy her; | 20 |
A parting kiss, what cou’d I less, | |
My vows began to scatter; | |
Sweet Betsey fell, fal lal de ral! | |
I am a Fornicator. | |
But, by the sun an’ moon I swear, | 25 |
An’ I’ll fulfil ilk hair o’t, | |
That while I own a single crown, | |
She’s welcome to a share o’t; | |
My rouguish boy, his mother’s joy, | |
An’ darling of his pater, | 30 |
I for his sake the name will take, | |
A harden’d Fornicator. | |