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Poems and Songs of Robert Burns

Chapter 352: O For Ane An’ Twenty, Tam
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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.

O For Ane An’ Twenty, Tam

Chorus.—An’ O for ane an’ twenty, Tam! And hey, sweet ane an’ twenty, Tam! I’ll learn my kin a rattlin’ sang, An’ I saw ane an’ twenty, Tam. They snool me sair, and haud me down, An’ gar me look like bluntie, Tam; But three short years will soon wheel roun’, An’ then comes ane an’ twenty, Tam. An’ O for, &c. A glieb o’ lan’, a claut o’ gear, Was left me by my auntie, Tam; At kith or kin I need na spier, An I saw ane an’ twenty, Tam. An’ O for, &c. They’ll hae me wed a wealthy coof, Tho’ I mysel’ hae plenty, Tam; But, hear’st thou laddie! there’s my loof, I’m thine at ane an’ twenty, Tam! An’ O for, &c.