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To Daunton Me


 The blude-red rose at Yule may blaw, The simmer lilies bloom in snaw, The frost may freeze the deepest sea, But an auld man shall never daunton me. To daunton me, to daunton me, An auld man shall never daunton me. To daunton me, and me sae young, Wi' his fause heart and his flattering tongue, That is the thing you shall never see, For an auld man shall never daunton me. To daunton me, to daunton me, An auld man shall never daunton me. For a' his meal and a' his maut, For a' his fresh beef and his saut, For a' his gold and white monie, An auld man shall never daunton me. To daunton me, to daunton me, An auld man shall never daunton me. His gear may buy him kye and yowes, His gear may buy him glens and knowes, But me he shall not buy nor free, For an auld man shall never daunton me. To daunton me, to daunton me, An auld man shall never daunton me. He hirples twa-fauld as he dow, Wi' his teethless gab and his auld beld pow, And the rain rins down frae his red-blear'd e'e, That auld man shall never daunton me. To daunton me, to daunton me, An auld man shall never daunton me.

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Joyce Falconer

About this work

This is a song by Robert Burns. It was written in 1788 and is read here by Joyce Falconer.

Themes for this song

marriageunhappinessman

Selected for 25 December

'The blood red rose at Yule may blaw...'. Christmas was not traditionally a feast much marked by Scottish Presbyterians, even Calvin questioning, moderate Protestants like Burns. But since Pagan times Yuletide customs and ceremonies had been important in rural communities. The Bard concerns himself here with two of his preoccupying motifs: marriage between an old man and a young woman; and Jacobitism. It was very characteristic of the poet to use a female voice for expressions of resistance or revolt. Over the Christmas period of 1787 Burns's head and heart were full of his latest romantic intrigue. Of which more, tomorrow!

Donny O'Rourke

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