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Poems and Songs of Robert Burns

Chapter 486: Ca’ The Yowes To The Knowes—Second Version
By Robert Burns
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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.

Ca’ The Yowes To The Knowes—Second Version

Chorus.—Ca’the yowes to the knowes, Ca’ them where the heather grows, Ca’ them where the burnie rowes, My bonie Dearie. Hark the mavis’ e’ening sang, Sounding Clouden’s woods amang; Then a-faulding let us gang, My bonie Dearie. Ca’ the yowes, &c. We’ll gae down by Clouden side, Thro’ the hazels, spreading wide, O’er the waves that sweetly glide, To the moon sae clearly. Ca’ the yowes, &c. Yonder Clouden’s silent towers,1 Where, at moonshine’s midnight hours, O’er the dewy-bending flowers, Fairies dance sae cheery. Ca’ the yowes, &c. Ghaist nor bogle shalt thou fear, Thou’rt to Love and Heav’n sae dear, Nocht of ill may come thee near; My bonie Dearie. Ca’ the yowes, &c. Fair and lovely as thou art, Thou hast stown my very heart; I can die—but canna part, My bonie Dearie. Ca’ the yowes, &c. [Footnote 1: An old ruin in a sweet situation at the confluence of the Clouden and the Nith.—R. B.]