Poem by Robert Burns

The Collier Laddie

O WHARE live ye my bonnie lass,
  And tell me how they ca’ ye?
My name, she says, is Mistress Jean,
  And I follow my Collier laddie.

O see ye not yon hills and dales
  The sun shines on sae brawly:
They a’ are mine, and they shall be thine,
  If ye’ll leave your Collier laddie.

And ye shall gang in rich attire,
  Weel buskit up fu’ gaudy;
And ane to wait at every hand,
  If ye’ll leave your Collier laddie.

Tho’ ye had a’ the sun shines on,
  And the earth conceals sae lowly;
I would turn my back on you and it a’,
  And embrace my Collier laddie.

I can win my five pennies in a day,
  And spend it at night full brawlie;
I can mak my bed in the Collier’s neuk,
  And lie down wi’ my Collier laddie.

Love for love is the bargain for me,
  Tho’ the wee cot-house should haud me;
And the warld before me to win my bread,
  And fare fa’ my Collier laddie!

1. The Chevalier’s Lament
2. Last May a Braw Wooer
3. When First I Saw
4. Frae the Friends and Land I Love
5. Young Jamie, Pride Of A’ the Plain

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