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Home  »  The Poems and Songs  »  369 . Song—My Collier Laddie

Robert Burns (1759–1796). Poems and Songs.
The Harvard Classics. 1909–14.

369 . Song—My Collier Laddie

WHARE live ye, my bonie lass?

And tell me what they ca’ ye;

My name, she says, is mistress Jean,

And I follow the Collier laddie.

My name, she says, &c.

See you not yon hills and dales

The sun shines on sae brawlie;

They a’ are mine, and they shall be thine,

Gin ye’ll leave your Collier laddie.

They a’ are mine, &c.

Ye shall gang in gay attire,

Weel buskit up sae gaudy;

And ane to wait on every hand,

Gin ye’ll leave your Collier laddie.

And ane to wait, &c.

Tho’ ye had a’ the sun shines on,

And the earth conceals sae lowly,

I wad turn my back on you and it a’,

And embrace my Collier laddie.

I wad turn my back, &c.

I can win my five pennies in a day,

An’ spen’t at night fu’ brawlie:

And make my bed in the collier’s neuk,

And lie down wi’ my Collier laddie.

And make my bed, &c.

Love for love is the bargain for me,

Tho’ the wee cot-house should haud me;

And the warld before me to win my bread,

And fair fa’ my Collier laddie!

And the warld before me, &c.