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Poems and Songs of Robert Burns

Chapter 385: Lady Mary Ann
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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.

Lady Mary Ann

O lady Mary Ann looks o’er the Castle wa’, She saw three bonie boys playing at the ba’, The youngest he was the flower amang them a’, My bonie laddie’s young, but he’s growin’ yet. O father, O father, an ye think it fit, We’ll send him a year to the college yet, We’ll sew a green ribbon round about his hat, And that will let them ken he’s to marry yet. Lady Mary Ann was a flower in the dew, Sweet was its smell and bonie was its hue, And the longer it blossom’d the sweeter it grew, For the lily in the bud will be bonier yet. Young Charlie Cochran was the sprout of an aik, Bonie and bloomin’ and straught was its make, The sun took delight to shine for its sake, And it will be the brag o’ the forest yet. The simmer is gane when the leaves they were green, And the days are awa’ that we hae seen, But far better days I trust will come again; For my bonie laddie’s young, but he’s growin’ yet.