A Lass Wi a Tocher
written in 1796
A Lass Wi a Tocher - context Summary
Composed in 1796
Written in Scotts dialect in 1796, this brisk, humorous song favors practical marriage over romantic illusion. Burns contrasts fleeting physical beauty with steady material advantage: acres, ‘‘weel-stockit farms’’ and the ‘‘nice yellow guineas’’ of a dowry (tocher). Rural images — green knowes and springing ewes — reinforce continuity and renewal as preferable to ephemeral ornament. The repeated chorus makes the poem feel like a convivial proclamation rather than a moral sermon. It reflects Burns’s ongoing interest in Scottish rural life and common social choices.
Read Complete AnalysesAwa' wi' your witchcraft o' Beauty's alarms, The slender bit Beauty you grasp in your arms, O, gie me the lass that has acres o' charms, O, gie me the lass wi' the weel-stockit farms. Chorus: Then hey, for a lass wi' a tocher, Then hey, for a lass wi' a tocher; Then hey, for a lass wi' a tocher; The nice yellow guineas for me. Your Beauty's a flower in the morning that blows, And withers the faster, the faster it grows: But the rapturous charm o' the bonie green knowes, Ilk spring they're new deckit wi' bonie white yowes. Then hey, for a lass, &c. And e'en when this Beauty your bosom hath blest The brightest o' Beauty may cloy when possess'd; But the sweet, yellow darlings wi' Geordie impress'd, The langer ye hae them, the mair they're carest. Then hey, for a lass, &c.
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