1/24/2009

Robert Burns


Will you be eating haggis or perhaps partaking of a cup of kindness on Burns night?

I associate Robert Burns’ poetry with parties, and family celebrations, I don’t think New Years Eve would be quite so celebratory without “Auld Lang Syne”. His poetry seems to me to be full of viguor and energy, sometimes amusing as in “Wee, sleekit, cowrin, tim'rous beastie”, and sometimes gentle and romantic as in “ O My Love”, which is your favourite?

O my Luve's like a red, red rose,
That's newly sprung in June:
O my Luve's like the melodie,
That's sweetly play'd in tune.

As fair art thou, my bonie lass,
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-thee-weel, my only Luve!
And fare-thee-weel, a while!
And I will come again, my Luve,
Tho' 'twere ten thousand mile!

Don’t you just love “Till a' the seas gang dry”, so much more lyrical than “Till all the seas run dry”?