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.
Behind yon hills where Lugar flows,
’Mang moors an’ mosses many O,
The wintry sun the day has clos’d,
And I’ll awa’ to Nannie O.
The westlin wind blaws loud an’ shill,
The night’s baith mirk and rainy O;
But I’ll get my plaid, an’ out I’ll steal,
An’ owre the hill to Nannie O.
My Nannie’s charming, sweet, and young:
Nae artfu’ wiles to win ye O:
May ill befa’ the flattering tongue
That wad beguile my Nannie O.
Her face is fair, her heart is true,
As spotless as she’s bonnie O:
The opening gowan, wat wi’ dew,
Nae purer is than Nannie O.
A country lad is my degree,
An’ few there be that ken me O;
But what care I how few they be,
I’m welcome aye to Nannie O.
My riches a’s my penny-fee,
An’ I maun guide it cannie O;
But warl’s gear ne’er troubles me,
My thoughts are a’ my Nannie O.
Our auld Guidman delights to view
His sheep an’ kye thrive bonnie O:
But I’m as blythe that hauds his pleugh,
An’ has nae care but Nannie O.
Come weel, come woe, I care na by,
I’ll tak what Heav’n will send me O;
Nae ither care in life have I,
But live, an’ love my Nannie O.