T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22.
The Yellow, Yellow Yorlin’
By Robert Burns (1759–1796)(An old Scots countryside song. From The Merry Muses of Caledonia, c. 1800) |
IT fell on a day, in the flow’ry month o’ May, | |
| All on a merry, merry mornin’, | |
| I met a pretty maid, an’ unto her I said, | |
| “I wad fain fin’ your yellow, yellow yorlin’.” | |
| “O no, young man,” says she, “you’re a stranger to me, | 5 |
| An’ I am anither man’s darlin’, | |
| Wha has baith sheep an’ cows, that’s feedin’ in the hows, | |
| An’ a cock for my yellow, yellow yorlin’.” | |
| “But, if I lay you down upon the dewy ground, | |
| You wad na be the waur ae farthin’, | 10 |
| An’ that happy, happy man, he never cou’d ken | |
| That I played wi’ your yellow, yellow yorlin’.” | |
| “O fie, young man,” says she, “I pray you let me be, | |
| I wad na for five pounds sterling; | |
| My mither wad gae mad, an’ sae wad my dad, | 15 |
| If you play’d with my yellow, yellow yorlin’.” | |
| But I took her by the waist, an’ laid her down in haste, | |
| For a’ her squeakin’ an’ squallin’, | |
| The lassie soon grew tame, an’ bade me come again | |
| For to play wi’ her yellow, yellow yorlin’. | 20 |