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Description: | Tam has spent the evening in a pub getting drunk with his friends and on his way home on horseback encounters the devil and a crowd of witches cavorting inside the auld Kirk of Alloway. Careless with drink, Tam disturbs the witches and flees towards the nearby bridge over the river Doon - with the witches in hot pursuit. (poem No 321)
Printed in the second volume of The Antiquities of Scotland by Captain Grose. Burns had persuaded Grose to include a drawing of Alloway Kirk in his work which Grose agreed to do, on condition that Burns provided him with a suitable poem to go with the engraving.
Page thirteen of fourteen which reads from ''Ah, Tam' down to ''ain grey tail'. Now the witches are after Tam with vengeance in mind while Tam urges Meg on for their very lives towards the Bridge over the Doon where the witches cannot cross. Hell's worst are after Tam with Nannie in touching distance of Tam's horse as they reach the keystone of the bridge but not far enough ahead to prevent the witch catching hold of Maggie's tail and pulling it off. | License: | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0 | Publisher: | Burns Monument Trust | Temporal: | 1790-01-01 - 1790-12-31 | Source: | Burns Scotland | Identifier: | Poem by Robert Burns: 'Tam o' Shanter - | Go to resource |
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