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Poems and Songs of Robert Burns

Chapter 451: Where Are The Joys I have Met?
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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.

Where Are The Joys I have Met?

Tune—“Saw ye my father.”
Where are the joys I have met in the morning, That danc’d to the lark’s early song? Where is the peace that awaited my wand’ring, At evening the wild-woods among? No more a winding the course of yon river, And marking sweet flowerets so fair, No more I trace the light footsteps of Pleasure, But Sorrow and sad-sighing Care. Is it that Summer’s forsaken our valleys, And grim, surly Winter is near? No, no, the bees humming round the gay roses Proclaim it the pride of the year. Fain would I hide what I fear to discover, Yet long, long, too well have I known; All that has caused this wreck in my bosom, Is Jenny, fair Jenny alone. Time cannot aid me, my griefs are immortal, Nor Hope dare a comfort bestow: Come then, enamour’d and fond of my anguish, Enjoyment I’ll seek in my woe.