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.
What can a young lassie, what shall a young lassie,
What can a young lassie do wi’ an auld man?
Bad luck on the penny that tempted my minnie
To sell her poor Jenny for siller an’ lan’!
He’s always compleenin’ frae mornin’ to e’enin’,
He hosts and he hirples the weary day lang:
He’s doylt and he’s dozin, his bluid it is frozen,
O, dreary’s the night wi’ a crazy auld man!
He hums and he hankers, he frets and he cankers,
I never can please him do a’ that I can;
He’s peevish, and jealous of a’ the young fellows:
O, dool on the day I met wi’ an auld man!
My auld auntie Katie upon me takes pity,
I’ll do my endeavour to follow her plan;
I’ll cross him and rack him, until I heart-break him,
And then his auld brass will buy me a new pan.