Poems and Songs of Robert Burns

Chapter 223: Song—My Hoggie

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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.

Song—My Hoggie

What will I do gin my Hoggie die? My joy, my pride, my Hoggie! My only beast, I had nae mae, And vow but I was vogie! The lee-lang night we watch’d the fauld, Me and my faithfu’ doggie; We heard nocht but the roaring linn, Amang the braes sae scroggie. But the houlet cry’d frau the castle wa’, The blitter frae the boggie; The tod reply’d upon the hill, I trembled for my Hoggie. When day did daw, and cocks did craw, The morning it was foggie; An unco tyke, lap o’er the dyke, And maist has kill’d my Hoggie!