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Poems and Songs of Robert Burns

Chapter 203: The Bonie Lass Of Albany1
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About This Book

The collection assembles lyrical songs, narrative poems, satirical pieces, epistles, epitaphs, and fragments that shift between convivial drinking verses, tender laments, and comic storytelling. Many lyrics were shaped to traditional airs and preserve vernacular speech, while longer works portray rural labor, domestic scenes, and compassionate encounters with animals. Satire targets religious hypocrisy and social pretension, and several poems take a direct, personal tone of moral reflection or affectionate address. The selections alternate moods and forms, emphasizing melodic phrasing and a versatile technical range.

The Bonie Lass Of Albany1

Tune—“Mary’s Dream.”
My heart is wae, and unco wae, To think upon the raging sea, That roars between her gardens green An’ the bonie Lass of Albany. This lovely maid’s of royal blood That ruled Albion’s kingdoms three, But oh, alas! for her bonie face, They’ve wrang’d the Lass of Albany. In the rolling tide of spreading Clyde There sits an isle of high degree, And a town of fame whose princely name Should grace the Lass of Albany. But there’s a youth, a witless youth, That fills the place where she should be; We’ll send him o’er to his native shore, And bring our ain sweet Albany. Alas the day, and woe the day, A false usurper wan the gree, Who now commands the towers and lands— The royal right of Albany. We’ll daily pray, we’ll nightly pray, On bended knees most fervently, The time may come, with pipe an’ drum We’ll welcome hame fair Albany. [Footnote 1: Natural daughter of Prince Charles Edward.]