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Poems and Songs of Robert Burns

Chapter 534: Her Answer
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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.

Her Answer

O tell na me o’ wind an’ rain, Upbraid na me wi’ cauld disdain, Gae back the gate ye cam again, I winna let ye in, jo. Chorus—I tell you now this ae night, This ae, ae, ae night; And ance for a’ this ae night, I winna let ye in, jo. The snellest blast, at mirkest hours, That round the pathless wand’rer pours Is nocht to what poor she endures, That’s trusted faithless man, jo. I tell you now, &c. The sweetest flower that deck’d the mead, Now trodden like the vilest weed— Let simple maid the lesson read The weird may be her ain, jo. I tell you now, &c. The bird that charm’d his summer day, Is now the cruel Fowler’s prey; Let witless, trusting, Woman say How aft her fate’s the same, jo! I tell you now, &c.