Blyth Will an' Bessie's Wedding
Blyth Will an' Bessie's Wedding - context Summary
Composed for a Wedding
Blyth Will an' Bessie's Wedding is a comic, bawdy sketch of a rural Scottish wedding. It follows local characters and their jealousies, flirtations, and the crowded, convivial sleeping arrangements that follow the festivities. Written in Scots dialect, the poem foregrounds communal revelry and earthy humor rather than moral reflection. Its subject matter and tone reflect Robert Burns's interest in rural life and popular song. The piece appears in The Merry Muses of Caledonia and was published in 1791, presented as a light, occasion-driven entertainment for a wedding audience.
Read Complete AnalysesThere was a weddin' o'er in Fife, An' mony ane frae Lothian at it; Jean Vernor there maist lost hir life, For love o' Jamie Howden at it. Blyth Will an' Bessie's wedding', Blyth Will an' Bessie's wedding', Had I been Will, Bess had been mine, An 'Bess an' I had made the weddin'. Right sair she grat, an' wet her cheeks, An naithing pleas'd that we could gie her; She tint her heart in Jeamie's breeks, It cam nae back to Lothian wi' her. (Tam)mie Tamson too was there, Maggie Birnie was his dearie, He pat it in amang the hair, An' puddled there till he was weary. When e'enin' cam the town was thrang, An' beds were no to get for siller; When e'er they fand a want o'room, They lay in pairs like bread an' butter. Twa an' twa they made the bed, An twa an' twa they lay the gither; When they had na room enough, Ilk ane lap on aboon the tither.
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