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Poems and Songs of Robert Burns

Chapter 267: Beware O’ Bonie Ann
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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.

Beware O’ Bonie Ann

Ye gallants bright, I rede you right, Beware o’ bonie Ann; Her comely face sae fu’ o’ grace, Your heart she will trepan: Her een sae bright, like stars by night, Her skin sae like the swan; Sae jimply lac’d her genty waist, That sweetly ye might span. Youth, Grace, and Love attendant move, And pleasure leads the van: In a’ their charms, and conquering arms, They wait on bonie Ann. The captive bands may chain the hands, But love enslaves the man: Ye gallants braw, I rede you a’, Beware o’ bonie Ann!