The Banks O' Doon (Third Version)
written in 1791
The Banks O' Doon (Third Version) - meaning Summary
Mourning Love Beside the River
The poem contrasts the Doon's bright, living landscape with the speaker's inner sorrow after a lost or betrayed love. Natural sounds and blooms—birds, roses, woodbine—remind the narrator of past happiness now irretrievable. Memory moves from carefree courting and plucking a rose to bitter recognition that the lover has taken the joy and left the painful residue, symbolized by the thorn. The result is a poignant, lyrical meditation on how places tied to love can become sites of grief and longing.
Read Complete AnalysesYe banks and braes o' bonie Doon, How can ye bloom sae fresh and fair ? How can ye chant, ye little birds, And I sae weary fu' o' care! Thou'll break my heart, thou warbling bird, That wantons thro' the flowering thorn: Thou minds me o' departed joys, Departed never to return. Aft hae I rov'd by bonie Doon, To see the rose and woodbine twine: And ilka bird sang o' its Luve , And fondly sae did I o' mine; Wi' lightsome heart I pu'd a rose, Fu' sweet upon its thorny tree! And may fause Luver staw my rose, But ah! he left the thorn wi' me
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