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Poems and Songs of Robert Burns

Chapter 481: The Highland Widow’s Lament
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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 Highland Widow’s Lament

Oh I am come to the low Countrie, Ochon, Ochon, Ochrie! Without a penny in my purse, To buy a meal to me. It was na sae in the Highland hills, Ochon, Ochon, Ochrie! Nae woman in the Country wide, Sae happy was as me. For then I had a score o’kye, Ochon, Ochon, Ochrie! Feeding on you hill sae high, And giving milk to me. And there I had three score o’yowes, Ochon, Ochon, Ochrie! Skipping on yon bonie knowes, And casting woo’ to me. I was the happiest of a’ the Clan, Sair, sair, may I repine; For Donald was the brawest man, And Donald he was mine. Till Charlie Stewart cam at last, Sae far to set us free; My Donald’s arm was wanted then, For Scotland and for me. Their waefu’ fate what need I tell, Right to the wrang did yield; My Donald and his Country fell, Upon Culloden field. Oh I am come to the low Countrie, Ochon, Ochon, Ochrie! Nae woman in the warld wide, Sae wretched now as me.