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Poems and Songs of Robert Burns

Chapter 407: Poortith Cauld And Restless Love
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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.

Poortith Cauld And Restless Love

Tune—“Cauld Kail in Aberdeen.”
O poortith cauld, and restless love, Ye wrack my peace between ye; Yet poortith a’ I could forgive, An ’twere na for my Jeanie. Chorus—O why should Fate sic pleasure have, Life’s dearest bands untwining? Or why sae sweet a flower as love Depend on Fortune’s shining? The warld’s wealth, when I think on, It’s pride and a’ the lave o’t; O fie on silly coward man, That he should be the slave o’t! O why, &c. Her e’en, sae bonie blue, betray How she repays my passion; But prudence is her o’erword aye, She talks o’ rank and fashion. O why, &c. O wha can prudence think upon, And sic a lassie by him? O wha can prudence think upon, And sae in love as I am? O why, &c. How blest the simple cotter’s fate! He woos his artless dearie; The silly bogles, wealth and state, Can never make him eerie, O why, &c.