The Canongate Burns (121 page)
Read The Canongate Burns Online
Authors: Robert Burns
Tune: Allan Water.
First printed in Thomson, 1799.
By Allan-side I chanc'd to rove,
      While Phebus sank beyond Benledi;
1
The winds were whispering thro' the grove,
      The yellow corn was waving ready:
5
I listen'd to a lover's sang,
song
      An' thought on youthfu' pleasures mony;
many
And ay the wild-wood echoes rang â
      O dearly do I lo'e thee, Annie. â
love
O happy be the woodbine bower,
10
      Nae nightly bogle make it eerie;
no, demon, fearful
Nor ever sorrow stain the hour,
      The place and time I met my Dearie!
Her head upon my throbbing breast,
      She, sinking, said, âI'm thine for ever!'
15
While mony a kiss the seal imprest,
      The sacred vow, we ne'er should sever. â
The haunt o' Spring 's the primrose-brae.
hill slope
      The Simmer joys the flocks to follow;
summer
How cheery thro' her shortening day,
20
      Is Autumn in her weeds o' yellow:
But can they melt the glowing heart,
      Or chain the soul in speechless pleasure,
Or thro' each nerve the rapture dart,
      Like meeting HER, our bosom's treasure. â
Burns wrote this work because he felt the lyrics to the tune
Allan
Water
in the S.M.M were mediocre. Kinsley gives the title of the tune as the song title,
Allan Water
.
1
A mountain, to the north of Stirling. R.B. [near Strathallan].
Tune: Cauld Kail
First printed in Thomson, 1799.
COME, let me take thee to my breast,
      And pledge we ne'er shall sunder;
And I shall spurn, as vilest dust,
      The warld's wealth and grandeur:
world's
5
And do I hear my Jeanie own,
      That equal transports move her?
I ask for dearest life alone
      That I may live to love her.
Thus in my arms, wi' a' thy charms,
with all
10
      I clasp my countless treasure;
I'll seek nae mair o' Heav'n to share,
no more
      Than sic a moment's pleasure:
such
And by thy een, sae bonie blue,
een, so
      I swear I'm thine for ever!
15
And on thy lips I seal my vow,
      And break it shall I never!
The final stanza of this song forms part of the earlier work
And I'll
Kiss Thee Yet
. The heroine of the song, if one did exist, is not known. Mackay quotes Burns's remark âthe Muse that presides o'er the shores of Nith ⦠whispered me the following' (p. 487). This is misleading, suggesting as it does, that it was not inspired by the poet's Ayrshire muse, âCoila'. In the same letter, Burns makes it clear that he does mean Coila, âor rather my old inspiring dearest nymph, Coila, whispered me the following' (Letter 580).
Â
First printed in Thomson, 1799.
NOW rosy May comes in wi' flowers,
with
      To deck her gay, green-spreading bowers;
And now comes in the happy hours,
      To wander wi' my Davie. â
Chorus
5
Meet me on the warlock knowe,
witching hill
      Dainty Davie, Dainty Davie;
There I'll spend the day wi' you,
      My ain dear Dainty Davie. â
own
The crystal waters round us fa',
fall
10
      The merry birds are lovers a',
The scented breezes round us blaw,
blow
      A-wandering wi' my Davie. â
            Meet me on, &c.
When purple morning starts the hare,
      To steal upon her early fare,
15
Then thro' the dews I will repair
      To meet my faithfu' Davie. â
            Meet me on, &c.
When day, expiring in the west,
      The curtain draws o' Nature's rest,
I flee to his arms I lo'e the best,
love
20
      And that's my ain dear Davie. â
own
            Meet me on, &c.
Final Chorus
      Meet me on the warlock knowe,
Bonie Davie, Dainty Davie!
      There I'll spend the day wi' you,
            My ain dear Dainty Davie. â
own
This is another example by Burns of a fine lyric in the feminine voice. The arrangement of the song was the subject of an argument between Burns and that incessant meddler Thomson. Burns reacted with horror at the collector's suggested modification to the music:
Dainty Davie, â I have heard sung, nineteen thousand, nine hundred & ninety nine times, & always with the chorus to the low part of the tune; & nothing, since a Highland wench in the Cowgate once bore me three bastards at a birth, has surprised me so much, as your opinion on this Subject' (Letter 586).
Thomson not only meddled with the lyrics of Burns but had the audacity to change Beethoven's music. This makes the poet's outburst
of reiterated sexual hyperbole comprehensible. Kinsley comments on this episode that Thomson's âdogmatism hardened against Burns's reitered self-assurance ⦠unmoved by Burns's lurid (and fictitious) comparison' (Vol. III, p. 1438).
Epigram â On My Lord Buchan's vociferating, in an argument, that âWomen must be always flattered grossly or not spoken to at all'.
First printed in Scott Douglas, 1876.
âPraise Woman still,' his Lordship roars,
       âDeserv'd, or not, no matter,'
But thee, Maria, while I praise,
       There Flattery cannot flatter. â
Maria, all my thought and dream,
       Inspires my vocal shell:
The more I praise my lovely Theme,
       The more the truth I tell. â
This was written on the reverse of a manuscript of
Scots Wha Hae
. Maria Banks Woodley Riddell (1772â1808), daughter of William Woodley, married Walter Riddell (brother of Robert) in 1790 and lived at Goldielea house. It was later renamed Woodley Park. She published some minor verse after Burns's death and through the poet became a friend of William Smellie who printed her travel book.
The 1862 manuscript sale by Puttock and Simpson in London contained a holograph copy of the above epigram titled âOn My Lord Buchan's vociferating, in an argument, that “Women must be always flattered grossly or not spoken to at all”' (
Autograph Poems
of Robert Burns
, The Sales Catalogue of Puttock and Simpson, May 1862, London, p. 14, printed by E.C. Bigmore). We have changed the standard sub-title given by Scott Douglas (used by subsequent editors) to that given by Burns.
First printed in Currie, 1800.
As down the burn they took their way,
      And thro' the flowery dale;
His cheek to hers he aft did lay,
oft
      And love was ay the tale. â
always
With, âMary, when shall we return,
      Sic pleasure to renew;'
such
Quoth Mary, âLove, I like the burn,
      And ay shall follow you.'â
This is a modification of a traditional bawdy song
Down the Burn
,
Davie
, written at Thomson's request. The song collector later substituted his own lines to replace those of Burns (See HenleyâHenderson, Vol. IV, p. 104).
First printed in part by Stewart, 1802, then completed
in Scott Douglas, 1876.
â
I cannot but remember such things were
,
And were most dear to me
'.
Adapted from Shakespeare's
Macbeth
, Act 4, scene 3.
In vain would Prudence with decorous sneer,
Point out a cens'ring world, and bid me fear:
Above that world on wings of love I rise:
I know its worst, and can that worst despise. â
5
âWrong'd, injur'd, shunn'd, unpitied, unredrest
The mock'd quotation of the scorner's jest.' â
Let Prudence' direst bodements on me fall,
Clarinda, rich reward! o'erpays them all. â
As low-borne mists before the sun remove,
10
So shines, so reigns unrivalled mighty LOVE. â
In vain the Laws their feeble force oppose;
Chain'd at his feet, they groan Love's vanquish'd foes;
In vain Religion meets my shrinking eye;
I dare not combat, but I turn and fly:
15
Conscience in vain upbraids th' unhallow'd fire;
Love grasps his scorpions, stifled they expire:
Reason drops headlong from his sacred throne,
Thy dear idea reigns, and reigns alone;
Each thought intoxicated homage yields,
20
And riots wanton in forbidden fields. â
By all on High, adoring mortals know!
By all the conscious villain fears below!
By what, Alas! much more my soul alarms,
My doubtful hopes once more to fill thy arms!
25
Ev'n shouldst thou, false, forswear the guilty tie,
Thine and thine only I must live and die!!!
This began as a poetic fragment in 1788. It was modified and expanded in 1789, but remained unfinished until 1793. The first stage written about Clarinda (Mrs McLehose) included the lines:
âI burn, I burn, as when thro' ripen'd corn
By driving winds the crackling flames are borne.'
Now, maddening-wild, I curse that fatal night,
Now bless the hour that charm'd my guilty sight.
The topic of the 1789 version changed from Clarinda to the affair of Mrs Maxwell Campbell of Cumnock who had given birth to a child by the then married Captain James Montgomery. Letter 307 reveals that this version was written in the voice of Mrs Maxwell Campbell, to her lover. The affair was public knowledge given that the dispute over the child went to the Court of Session. (See also Letter 310 to Mrs Dunlop.) Montgomerie went overseas: here are some of the lines written in her plaintive voice, later dropped,
Mild zephyrs waft thee to life's farthest shore,
Nor think of me and my distresses more!
Falsehood accurst! No! Still I beg a place,
Still near thy heart some little, little trace!
For that dear trace the world I would resign:
O, let me live, and die, and think it mine!
By all I lov'd, neglected, and forgot,
No friendly face e'er lights my squalid cot.
Shunn'd, hated, wrong'd, unpitied, unredrest
The mock'd quotation of the scorner's jest;
Ev'n the poor support of my wretched life,
Snatched by the violence of legal strife;
Oft grateful for my very daily bread,
To those my family's once large bounty fed;
A welcome inmate at their homely fare,
My griefs, my woes, my sighs, my tears they share:
Their vulgar souls unlike the souls refined,
The fashion'd marble of the polish'd mind.
The poem eventually reverted to its original plan, as a work dedicated to Clarinda, when Burns met her again in 1791. The title
Passion's Cry
, employed by all modern editors, is not by Burns.
First printed in Scott Douglas, 1876.
Tune: Todlin Hame â
Dost ask me, why I send thee here,
This firstling of the infant year?
Dost ask me, what this primrose shews,
Bepearled thus with morning dews? â
5
       I must whisper to thy ears,
       The sweets of loves are wash'd with tears.
This lovely native of the dale,
Thou seest, how languid, pensive, pale:
Thou seest this bending stalk so weak,
10
That each way yielding doth not break?
       I must tell thee, these reveal,
       The doubts and fears that lovers feel.
This is based on an old English song by Robert Herrick, 1648. Another version of
The Primrose
is given by Henley and Henderson (1896), but this is the final lyric by Burns, with little change from the original.
Tune: Free Him Father
First printed in Thomson, 1799.
THOU hast left me ever, Jamie,
      Thou hast left me ever.
Thou hast left me ever, Jamie,
      Thou hast left me ever.
Aften hast thou vow'd that Death
often
      Only should us sever:
Now thou'st left thy lass for ay â
always
      I maun see thee never, Jamie,
may
            I'll see thee never. â
Thou hast me forsaken, Jamie,
      Thou hast me forsaken:
Thou hast me forsaken, Jamie,
      Thou hast me forsaken.
Thou canst love anither jo,
darling
      While my heart is breaking:
Soon my weary een I'll close â
eyes
      Never mair to waken, Jamie,
more
            Never mair to waken.
This was sent to Thomson in September 1793. It was composed, according to the bard, âby the leaside of a bowl of punch' just after midnight (Letter 586).