Poems and Songs of Robert Burns

Chapter 287: Whistle O’er The Lave O’t

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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.

Whistle O’er The Lave O’t

First when Maggie was my care, Heav’n, I thought, was in her air, Now we’re married—speir nae mair, But whistle o’er the lave o’t! Meg was meek, and Meg was mild, Sweet and harmless as a child— Wiser men than me’s beguil’d; Whistle o’er the lave o’t! How we live, my Meg and me, How we love, and how we gree, I care na by how few may see— Whistle o’er the lave o’t! Wha I wish were maggot’s meat, Dish’d up in her winding-sheet, I could write—but Meg maun see’t— Whistle o’er the lave o’t!