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Songs and lyrics of Robert Burns

Chapter 5: THERE WAS A LAD

By Robert Burns

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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.

Songs and Lyrics

THERE WAS A LAD

There was a lad was born in Kyle,

But what’n a day o’ what’n a style

I doubt it’s hardly worth the while

To be sae nice wi’ Robin.

Robin was a rovin’ boy,

Rantin’ rovin’, rantin’ rovin’;

Robin was a rovin’ boy,

Rantin’ rovin’ Robin.

Our monarch’s hindmost year but ane

Was five-and-twenty days begun,

’Twas then a blast o’ Janwar win’

Blew hansel in on Robin.

The gossip keekit in his loof,

Quo’ scho, Wha lives will see the proof,

This waly boy will be nae coof,

I think we’ll ca’ him Robin.

He’ll hae misfortunes great and sma’,

But aye a heart aboon them a’;

He’ll be a credit till us a’,

We’ll a’ be proud o’ Robin.

But sure as three times three mak nine,

I see by ilka score and line,

This chap will dearly like our kin’,

So leeze me on thee, Robin.

Robin was a rovin’ boy,

Rantin’ rovin’, rantin’ rovin’;

Robin was a rovin’ boy,

Rantin’ rovin’ Robin.