Contents -BIBLIOGRAPHIC RECORD

Thomas Humphry Ward, ed. The English Poets. 1880–1918.rnVol. III. The Eighteenth Century: Addison to Blake

Robert Burns (1759–1796)

Last May a Braw Wooer

LAST May a braw wooer cam down the lang glen,

And sair wi’ his love he did deave me;

I said there was naething I hated like men,

The deuce gae wi’m to believe me, believe me,

The deuce gae wi’m to believe me.

He spak o’ the darts in my bonie black een,

And vowed for my love he was diein;

I said he might die when he liket for Jean:

The Lord forgie me for liein, for liein,

The Lord forgie me for liein.

A weel-stocked mailen, himsel for the laird,

And marriage aff-hand, were his proffers:

I never loot on that I kenned it, or cared;

But thought I might hae waur offers, waur offers,

But thought I might hae waur offers.

But what wad ye think? in a fortnight or less,

The deil tak his taste to gae near her!

He up the lang loan to my black cousin Bess,

Guess ye how, the jad! I could bear her, could bear her,

Guess ye how, the jad! I could bear her.

But a’ the neist week as I fretted wi’ care,

I gaed to the tryste o’ Dalgarnock,

And wha but my fine fickle lover was there!

I glowred as I ’d seen a warlock, a warlock,

I glowred as I ’d seen a warlock.

But owre my left shouther I gae him a blink,

Lest neibors might say I was saucy;

My wooer he capered as he ’d been in drink,

And vowed I was his dear lassie, dear lassie,

And vowed I was his dear lassie.

I spier’d for my cousin fu’ couthy and sweet,

Gin she had recovered her hearin,

And how her new shoon fit her auld shachl’t feet—

But Heavens! how he fell a swearin, a swearin,

But Heavens! how he fell a swearin.

He begged, for Gudesake, I wad be his wife,

Or else I wad kill him wi’ sorrow:

So e’en to preserve the poor body in life,

I think I maun wed him to-morrow, to-morrow,

I think I maun wed him to-morrow.