Duncan Macleerie
Duncan Macleerie - meaning Summary
Comic Domestic Sexual Teasing
This short Scots poem presents a comic, bawdy domestic scene featuring Duncan Macleerie and his wife Janet. In a songlike sequence, their outing to buy a knife turns into purchases and pastimes that reveal playful sexual undertones and mutual teasing. Repetitive refrains and colloquial speech create a jaunty, conversational tone; physical details and crude humor underline the poem's earthy immediacy. The poem treats marital intimacy as material for light ridicule and celebration, sketching two characters who banter, perform, and take pleasure in each other while inviting the reader to laugh at their follies.
Read Complete AnalysesDuncan Macleerie and Janet his wife, They gaed to Kilmarnock to buy a new knife; But instead of a knife they coft but a bleerie; We're very weel saird, quo' Duncan Macleerie. Duncan Macleerie has got a new fiddle, It's a' strung wi' hair, and a hole in the middle; An' ay when he plays on't, his wife looks sae cheary, Very weel done, Duncan, quo' Janet Macleerie. Duncan he play'd till his bow it grew greasy; Janet grew fretfu', and unco uneasy. Hoot, quo' she, Duncan, ye're unco soon weary; Play us a pibroch, quo' Janet Macleerie. Duncan Macleerie play'd on the harp, An' Janet Macleerie danc'd in her sark; Her sark it was short, her cunt it was hairy, Very weel danc'd, Janet, quo' Duncan Macleerie.
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