More about this song
This two stanza song gives some critics pause due to the irregularity of the metrical flow of the first stanza, but Johnson's papers from Scots Musical Museum indicate the lyrics as Burns' - though it is unknown if they were original or updated by Burns from an earlier traditional piece.
The sentiments, however, muse on a theme familiar to Burns: the transcendence of love over the bounds of time and season, as in line 13: 'seasons dancing, life advancing'. The focus here is the lady love, with the repeated end rhyme in both stanzas being her name: Bonie Bell.
This song was first published in Scots Musical Museum, August 1792. Notably, this poem contains one of the few ladies penned by Burns for whom no real-life counterpart has been named.
Lisa Harrison
