Songs and lyrics of Robert Burns

Chapter 98: O MAY, THY MORN

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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.

O MAY, THY MORN

O May, thy morn was ne’er sae sweet,

As the mirk night o’ December;

For sparkling was the rosy wine,

And private was the chamber;

And dear was she I dare na name,

But I will aye remember.

And here’s to them, that, like oursel,

Can push about the jorum!

And here’s to them that wish us weel,

May a’ that’s guid watch o’er them!

And here’s to them we dare na tell,

The dearest o’ the quorum!