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Poems and Songs of Robert Burns

Chapter 332: The Banks O’ Doon—Second Version
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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 Banks O’ Doon—Second Version

Ye flowery banks o’ bonie Doon, How can ye blume sae fair? How can ye chant, ye little birds, And I sae fu’ o care! Thou’ll break my heart, thou bonie bird, That sings upon the bough! Thou minds me o’ the happy days When my fause Luve was true. Thou’ll break my heart, thou bonie bird, That sings beside thy mate; For sae I sat, and sae I sang, And wist na o’ my fate. Aft hae I rov’d by bonie Doon, To see the woodbine twine; And ilka bird sang o’ its Luve, And sae did I o’ mine. Wi’ lightsome heart I pu’d a rose, Upon its thorny tree; But my fause Luver staw my rose, And left the thorn wi’ me. Wi’ lightsome heart I pu’d a rose, Upon a morn in June; And sae I flourished on the morn, And sae was pu’d or noon.