Godly Girzie
Godly Girzie - meaning Summary
Pious Encounter on the Road
The poem describes a brief encounter on a sacred night in Kilmarnock between a lustful man and Girzie, a devout woman returning from a holy meeting. The man presses forward physically and verbally, while Girzie, weakened from religious duties, refuses but does not meet his advances with anger. Her actions—gazing at the moon, sighing, and asserting that her heart is "in heaven above"—frame the scene as a moral and emotional tension between earthly desire and spiritual devotion. The poem captures restraint, ambiguity, and the uneasy coexistence of piety and temptation.
Read Complete AnalysesThe nicht it was a haly nicht, The day haed been a haly day; Kilmarnock gleamed wi candle licht, As Girzie hameward teuk her wey. A man o sin, ill mey he thrive! An never haly-meetin see! Wi godly Girzie met belyve, Amang the Craigie hills sae hie. The chiel was wicht, the chiel was stark, He wad na wait to chap nor ca', An she was faint wi haly wark, She haed na pith to say him na. But ay she glowred up to the muin, An ay she siched maist piouslie; "I trust my hert's in heeven abuin, "Whare'er your sinfu pentle be."
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