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The World Beyond BetterMost => The Culture Tent => Topic started by: Front-Ranger on January 25, 2009, 09:32:57 pm

Title: Post your favourite Robert Burns poem!
Post by: Front-Ranger on January 25, 2009, 09:32:57 pm
Celebrating the 250th anniversary of Robert Burns' birth, please post your favourite poem of his, or one inspired by his works, or one of your own!!

To get us started:

A Red, Red Rose
by Robert Burns
Oh my luve is like a red, red rose,
That's newly sprung in June:
Oh my luve is like the melodie,
That's sweetly play'd in tune.

As fair art thou, my bonie darlin',
So deep in luve am I;
And I will luve thee still, my dear,
Till a' the seas gang dry.

Till a' the seas gang dry, my dear,
And the rocks melt wi' the sun;
And I will luve thee still, my dear,
While the sands o' life shall run.

And fare the weel, my only luve!
And fare thee weel a while!
And I will come again, my luve,
Tho' it were ten thousand mile!


Okay, I changed a word: "lass"

Title: Re: Post your favourite Robert Burns poem!
Post by: southendmd on January 26, 2009, 03:40:28 pm
OK, here's mine:



Comin' Thro the Rye

O, Jenny's a' weet, poor body,
Jenny's seldom dry;
She draigl't a' her petticoattie
Comin thro' the rye.

Chorus:
        Comin thro the rye, poor body,
             Comin thro the rye,
        She draigl't a'her petticoatie,
             Comin thro the rye!

Gin a body meet a body
Comin thro the rye,
Gin a body kiss a body,
Need a body cry?

Gin a body meet a body
Comin thro the glen,
Gin a body kiss a body,
Need the warld ken?


    -- Robert Burns
 




--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Notes:

a' weet: all wet
gin [g as in give]: if
draigl't a' her petticoattie: draggled (wet by trailing on the ground) all
               her petticoats
ken: know

The first thing a typical English speaker will notice when introduced to
Burns's poetry is, of course, the dialect. However, once you get beyond
that, the most striking thing about his poems is how wonderfully musical
they are. Indeed, most of them practically sing themselves, and it is
unsurprising to learn that many (including today's piece) were actual song
lyrics rather than 'poetry'.

I also love the tone of today's piece, somewhere between playful and
earnest, though leaning towards the latter. Burns has captured the feel
of the setting and the moment perfectly, and done so in a few, simple words.
And despite its slightly plaintive air, I can see this working very well as
a drinking song :)



Snippets:

Salinger's classic 'Catcher in the Rye' owes its title to the protagonist's
misremembering the poem as 'Gin a body catch a body/ Comin thro the rye' -
the image of a 'catcher' in the rye stayed with him.



Notes from http://www.cs.rice.edu/~ssiyer/minstrels/poems/675.html
Title: Re: Post your favourite Robert Burns poem!
Post by: Jeff Wrangler on January 26, 2009, 04:42:44 pm
Here's mine. Of course the final stanza is the most famous.

To a Louse:
On Seeing One on a Lady's Bonnet at Church


Ha! whare ye gaun' ye crowlin ferlie?
Your impudence protects you sairly;
I canna say but ye strunt rarely
Owre gauze and lace,
Tho faith! I fear ye dine but sparely
On sic a place.

Ye ugly, creepin, blastit wonner,
Detested, shunn'd by saunt an sinner,
How daur ye set your fit upon her--
Sae fine a lady!
Gae somewhere else and seek your dinner
On some poor body.

Swith! in some beggar's hauffet squattle;
There ye may creep, and sprawl, and sprattle;
Wi' ither kindred, jumping cattle;
In shoals and nations;
Whare horn nor bane ne'er daur unsettle
Your thick plantations.

Now haud you there! ye're out o' sight,
Below the fatt'rils, snug an tight,
Na, faith ye yet! ye'll no be right,
Till ye've got on it--
The vera tapmost, tow'rin height
O' Miss's bonnet.

My sooth! right bauld ye set your nose out,
As plump an grey as onie grozet:
O for some rank, mercurial rozet,
Or fell, red smeddum,
I'd gie you sic a hearty dose o't,
Wad dress your droddum!

I wad na been surpris'd to spy
You on an auld wife's flainen toy
Or aiblins some bit duddie boy,
On's wyliecoat;
But Miss's fine Lunardi! fye!
How daur ye do't?

O Jeany, dinna toss your head,
An set your beauties a' abread!
Ye little ken what cursed speed
The blastie's makin!
Thae winks an finger-ends, I dread,
Are notice takin!

O wad some Power the giftie gie us
To see oursels as ithers see us!
It wad frae monie a blunder free us
An foolish notion:
What airs in dress an gait wad lea'es us,
An ev'n devotion!
Title: Re: Post your favourite Robert Burns poem!
Post by: Front-Ranger on January 26, 2009, 08:06:31 pm

Comin' Thro the Rye

O, Jenny's a' weet, poor body,
Jenny's seldom dry;
She draigl't a' her petticoattie
Comin thro' the rye.

Chorus:
        Comin thro the rye, poor body,
             Comin thro the rye,
        She draigl't a'her petticoatie,
             Comin thro the rye!

Gin a body meet a body
Comin thro the rye,
Gin a body kiss a body,
Need a body cry?

Gin a body meet a body
Comin thro the glen,
Gin a body kiss a body,
Need the warld ken?


    -- Robert Burns
 



Well, he was obviously drinking sumpthun when he wrote this, but I'm not sure if it was gin or rye whiskey!! I'd like to know so I can imbibe sumpthun to help me finish up a little ditty I'd like to get composed before Valentine's Day!

And, Jeff, some interpretation please...he is writing about a woman named Louise who is wearing a bonnet? Or is she a bonnie lass, hehe?

Title: Re: Post your favourite Robert Burns poem!
Post by: southendmd on January 26, 2009, 09:58:20 pm
Well, he was obviously drinking sumpthun when he wrote this, but I'm not sure if it was gin or rye whiskey!! I'd like to know so I can imbibe sumpthun to help me finish up a little ditty I'd like to get composed before Valentine's Day!

Here's Katriona singing this with the classic tune:

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LkLlpJAd_DU[/youtube]
Title: Re: Post your favourite Robert Burns poem!
Post by: Front-Ranger on January 26, 2018, 11:33:35 am
Time to revive this thread!
Title: Re: Post your favourite Robert Burns poem!
Post by: Jeff Wrangler on January 26, 2018, 12:11:03 pm
Well, he was obviously drinking sumpthun when he wrote this, but I'm not sure if it was gin or rye whiskey!! I'd like to know so I can imbibe sumpthun to help me finish up a little ditty I'd like to get composed before Valentine's Day!

I suspect that she's drinking scotch whiskey.

 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotch_whisky (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scotch_whisky)

"Gin" here is not gin the spirituous liquor. Apparently it's Scottish dialect for "if." Try substituting: "If a body meet a body/ Comin'  thro' the rye,/ If a body kiss a body,/ Need a body cry?" My guess is that it's a "hard" G.

Quote
And, Jeff, some interpretation please...he is writing about a woman named Louise who is wearing a bonnet? Or is she a bonnie lass, hehe?

FRiend, do your spectacles need wiping? That's not LOUISE, that's LOUSE.