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Poems and Songs of Robert Burns

Chapter 411: Wandering Willie—First Version
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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.

Wandering Willie—First Version

Here awa, there awa, wandering Willie, Now tired with wandering, haud awa hame; Come to my bosom, my ae only dearie, And tell me thou bring’st me my Willie the same. Loud blew the cauld winter winds at our parting; It was na the blast brought the tear in my e’e: Now welcome the Simmer, and welcome my Willie, The Simmer to Nature, my Willie to me. Ye hurricanes rest in the cave o’your slumbers, O how your wild horrors a lover alarms! Awaken ye breezes, row gently ye billows, And waft my dear laddie ance mair to my arms. But if he’s forgotten his faithfullest Nannie, O still flow between us, thou wide roaring main; May I never see it, may I never trow it, But, dying, believe that my Willie’s my ain!