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Description: | Verse 1: 'The tither morn, When I forlorn Aneath an aik sat moaning, I did na trow, I'd see my jo Beside me gain the glowming. But he fae trig lap o'er the rig And dawtingly did chear me When I, what reck, did least expect, To see my lad sae near me.' 'Tither' means other; 'aneath' means beneath; 'aik' means oak; 'trow' can mean a number of things including to trust; 'jo' means sweetheart, 'gain' can mean to suit; 'glowming' can mean frowning; 'trig' means quick and clever; 'lap' means did leap; 'rig' can mean a number of things including the furrow in a field; 'dawting' means caressingly.
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.
In his notes on this old song, Burns says that the tune is originally from the Highlands, and is 'not by any means a lady's song'. Nonetheless, this rural courting song is especially interesting because it is written from a female viewpoint. Burns also mentions in his notes that he heard a Gaelic song sung to the same melody. Glen (1900), however, thinks it likely that that the song originally came to the Highlands from Ireland and the Scottish Lowlands. The colloquial lyrics are very much written in a strong rural dialect - perhaps that of Ayrshire or Dumfries. | 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 IV, song 345, page 355 - 'The tit | Go to resource |
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