| T. R. Smith, comp. Poetica Erotica: Rare and Curious Amatory Verse. 1921–22. | | | | The Fornicator | | By Robert Burns (1759–1796) |
| | (From The Merry Muses of Caledonia) |
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YOU Jovial boys who love the joys, | |
| The blessfu’ joys of lovers; | |
| An’ dare avow’t wi’ daintless brow, | |
| Whate’er the lass discovers; | |
| I pray draw near, and you shall hear, | 5 |
| An’ welcome in a frater, | |
| I’ve lately been on quarantine, | |
| A proven Fornicator. | |
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| Before the congregation wide, | |
| I past the muster fairly; | 10 |
| My handsome Betsey by my side, | |
| We gat our ditty rarely. | |
| My downcast eye, by chance did spy, | |
| What made my mouth to water, | |
| Those limbs sae clean, where I between | 15 |
| Commenced Fornicator. | |
| |
| Wi’ rueful face and signs o’ grace, | |
| I paid the buttock hire; | |
| The night was dark, and thro’ the park | |
| I cou’dna but convoy her; | 20 |
| A parting kiss, what cou’d I less, | |
| My vows began to scatter; | |
| Sweet Betsey fell, fal lal de ral! | |
| I am a Fornicator. | |
| |
| But, by the sun an’ moon I swear, | 25 |
| An’ I’ll fulfil ilk hair o’t, | |
| That while I own a single crown, | |
| She’s welcome to a share o’t; | |
| My rouguish boy, his mother’s joy, | |
| An’ darling of his pater, | 30 |
| I for his sake the name will take, | |
| A harden’d Fornicator. | | | |
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