The Blue-eyed Lassie
written in 1788
The Blue-eyed Lassie - meaning Summary
Fatal Love Fixed on Eyes
A speaker recounts falling hopelessly in love with a woman whose blue eyes overwhelm him. He insists it is not her hair, lips, or body that ensnare him but specifically "her een sae bonie blue," repeated as the source of a figurative death wound. The poem compresses erotic attraction, helplessness, and courtly vow into a short dramatic address: he is both enchanted and wounded, hopes to win her with a vow, and admits he will die if she refuses. The tone mixes earnest passion with gentle Scottish dialectal charm.
Read Complete AnalysesI gaed a waefu' gate, yestreen, A gate, I fear, I'll dearly rue; I gat my death frae twa sweet een, Twa lovely e'en o' bonie blue. 'Twas not her golden ringlets bright, Her lips like roses, wat wi' dew, Her heaving bosom, lily-white, It was her een sae bonie blue. She talk'd, she smil'd, my heart she wyl'd, She charm'd my soul I wist na how; And ay the stound, the deadly wound, Cam frae her een sae bonie blue. But spare to speak, and spare to speed; She'll aiblins listen to my vow: Should she refuse, I'll lay my dead To her twa een sae bonie blue.
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