Robert Burns

Green Grow the Rashes [Alternate Version]

written in 1793

Green Grow the Rashes [Alternate Version] - meaning Summary

Playful Rustic Sexual Praise

This short, jovial Scots song celebrates rustic sexuality and affectionate mockery. Using playful local detail and repetitive refrains, the speaker praises women’s charms and the rough-and-ready sexual culture of rural life while lampooning pretensions. Episodes about specific women mix comic erotic image-making with folk social observation, treating desire, courtship, and social rank with teasing irreverence rather than moralizing judgment. The tone balances warmth and bawdy humor, inviting listeners to enjoy earthy pleasures and communal gossip rather than take any character’s behavior as exemplary or condemnatory.

Read Complete Analyses

Green grow the rashes, O, Green grow the rashes, O, The lassies they hae wimble-bores, The widows they hae gashes, O. O wat ye ought o fisher Meg, And how she trow'd the Webster, O, She loot me see her carrot cunt, And fell'd it for a lobster, O. Mistress Mary cow'd her thing, Because she wad be gentle, O, And span the fleece upon a rock, To waft a Highland mantle, O. An' heard ye o' the coat o' arms, The Lyon brought our lady, O, The crest was, couchant, sable cunt, The motto, 'ready, ready' O. Green grow the rashes, O, Green grow the rashes, O, The lassies they hae wimble-bores, The widows they hae gashes, O.

default user
PoetryVerse just now

Feel free to be first to leave comment.

8/2200 - 0