Songs and lyrics of Robert Burns

Chapter 101: HUSBAND, HUSBAND, CEASE YOUR STRIFE

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About This Book

A collected selection of the poet's songs and shorter lyrics presents his explorations of love, nature, rural Scottish life, patriotism, and social observation, often rendered in Scots dialect and intended for musical performance. The volume groups brief pieces alongside several longer poems, supplies a glossary of dialect terms and an index of first lines, and includes illustrative plates. Many lyrics evoke landscapes, domestic scenes, and communal gatherings, balancing tenderness and satire while varying tone from celebratory to elegiac. The arrangement favors lyrical vitality rather than strict chronology, offering readers both popular airs and more extended narrative poems within a single accessible anthology.

HUSBAND, HUSBAND, CEASE YOUR STRIFE

Husband, husband, cease your strife,

Nor longer idly rave, sir;

Tho’ I am your wedded wife,

Yet I am not your slave, sir.

‘One of two must still obey,

Nancy, Nancy;

Is it man or woman, say,

My spouse Nancy?’

If ’tis still the lordly word,

Service and obedience;

I’ll desert my sov’reign lord,

And so good-bye allegiance!

‘Sad shall I be, so bereft,

Nancy, Nancy!

Yet I’ll try to make a shift,

My spouse Nancy.’

My poor heart then break it must,

My last hour I’m near it:

When you lay me in the dust,

Think how you will bear it.

‘I will hope and trust in Heaven,

Nancy, Nancy;

Strength to bear it will be given,

My spouse Nancy.’

Well, sir, from the silent dead

Still I’ll try to daunt you;

Ever round your midnight bed

Horrid sprites shall haunt you.

‘I’ll wed another, like my dear

Nancy, Nancy;

Then all hell will fly for fear,

My spouse Nancy.’