Songs and lyrics of Robert Burns

Chapter 62: BRAW LADS

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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.

BRAW LADS

Braw braw lads on Yarrow braes,

Ye wander thro’ the blooming heather;

But Yarrow braes nor Ettrick shaws

Can match the lads o’ Gala Water.

But there is ane, a secret ane,

Aboon them a’ I lo’e him better;

And I’ll be his, and he’ll be mine,

The bonnie lad o’ Gala Water.

Altho’ his daddie was nae laird,

And tho’ I hae nae meikle tocher,

Yet rich in kindest, truest love,

We’ll tent our flocks by Gala Water.

It ne’er was wealth, it ne’er was wealth,

That coft contentment, peace or pleasure;

The bands and bliss o’ mutual love,

O that’s the chiefest warld’s treasure!