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Poems and Songs of Robert Burns

Chapter 380: The Weary Pund O’ Tow
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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 Weary Pund O’ Tow

Chorus.—The weary pund, the weary pund, The weary pund o’ tow; I think my wife will end her life, Before she spin her tow. I bought my wife a stane o’ lint, As gude as e’er did grow, And a’ that she has made o’ that Is ae puir pund o’ tow. The weary pund, &c. There sat a bottle in a bole, Beyont the ingle low; And aye she took the tither souk, To drouk the stourie tow. The weary pund, &c. Quoth I, For shame, ye dirty dame, Gae spin your tap o’ tow! She took the rock, and wi’ a knock, She brak it o’er my pow. The weary pund, &c. At last her feet—I sang to see’t! Gaed foremost o’er the knowe, And or I wad anither jad, I’ll wallop in a tow. The weary pund, &c.