I'll Mak You Be Fain to Follow Me
written in 1790
I'll Mak You Be Fain to Follow Me - meaning Summary
Courtship and Practical Refusal
This short Burns song stages a conversation between a courting soldier and a skeptical young woman. The soldier promises intimacy, shared provisions and travel—"part o' my supper, a part o' my bed"—and urges her to "follow me." The woman refuses, citing social shame, the hardships of campaign life, and little desire for battle. The poem balances flirtatious persuasion with practical resistance, exposing mismatched expectations: romantic rhetoric versus economic and reputational concerns. Its plain, dialogic voice foregrounds social realities behind courtship and the cost of following a soldier.
Read Complete AnalysesAs late by a sodger I chanced to pass, I heard him a courting a bony young lass; My hinny, my life, my dearest, quo he, I'll mak you be fain to follow me. Gin I should follow you, a poor sodger lad, Ilk ane o' my cummers wad think I was mad; For battles I never shall lang to see, I'll never be fain to follow thee. To follow me, I think ye may be glad, A part o' my supper, a part o' my bed, A part o' my bed, wherever it be, I'll mak you be fain to follow me. Come try my knapsack on your back, Alang the king's high-gate we'll pack; Between Saint Johnston and bony Dundee, I'll mak you be fain to follow me.
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