Poems and Songs of Robert Burns

Chapter 347: Lovely Polly Stewart

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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.

Lovely Polly Stewart

Chorus.—O lovely Polly Stewart, O charming Polly Stewart, There’s ne’er a flower that blooms in May, That’s half so fair as thou art! The flower it blaws, it fades, it fa’s, And art can ne’er renew it; But worth and truth, eternal youth Will gie to Polly Stewart, O lovely Polly Stewart, &c. [Footnote 1: Bacon was the name of a presumably intrusive host. The lines are said to have “afforded much amusement.”—Lang] May he whase arms shall fauld thy charms Possess a leal and true heart! To him be given to ken the heaven He grasps in Polly Stewart! O lovely Polly Stewart, &c.