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
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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