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Description: | Verse 1 (to the tune of 'Miss Admiral Gordon's Strathspey'): 'Of a' the airts the wind can blaw, I dearly like the west, For there the bony Lassie lives, The Lassie I lo'e best: There's wild woods grow, and rivers row, And mony a hill between; But day and night my fancy's flight Is ever wi' my Jean. I see her in the dewy flowers, I see her sweet and fair; I hear her in the tunefu' birds, I hear her charm the air: There's not a bony flower, that springs By fountain, shaw, or green, There's not a bony bird that sings, But minds me o' my Jean.'
The 'Scots Musical Museum' is the most important of the numerous eighteenth- and nineteenth-century collections of Scottish song. When the engraver James Johnson started work on the second volume of his collection in 1787, he enlisted Robert Burns as contributor and editor. Burns enthusiastically collected songs from various sources, often expanding or revising them, whilst including much of his own work. The resulting combination of innovation and antiquarianism gives the work a feel of living tradition.
On the interleaving pages of a copy of the 'Museum', Burns wrote a commentary on the collection. He revealed a very intimate piece of information about this composition, 'The air is by Marshall; the song I composed out of compliment to Mrs Burns. N.B. It was during the honeymoon'. Despite the notes existence, it is difficult to know which 'honeymoon' period Burns is talking of. His relationship with Jean was fairly irregular and had its moments of brutality. She was, however, the focus of at least 14 of Burns's poems. The melody to this piece also accompanies song 115 'The Lowlands of Holland'. | License: | http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0 | Publisher: | National Library of Scotland | Temporal: | 1787-01-01 - 1803-12-31 | Source: | Burns Scotland | Identifier: | Volume III, song 235, page 244 - 'I Love | Go to resource |
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