Our Gudewife's Sae Modest
Our Gudewife's Sae Modest - meaning Summary
Modesty Versus Private Appetite
This short Scots lyric contrasts a woman’s public modesty with her private appetite. The speaker notes that at the table she appears abstemious, but in bed she becomes voracious, using comic, earthy imagery of swallowing birds to mark the reversal. The tone is teasing and bawdy, voiced in colloquial dialect that heightens intimacy and humor. The poem presents a compact, comic observation about appearances versus desire, revealing speaker attitudes more than offering psychological depth about the wife herself.
Read Complete AnalysesOur gudewife's sae modest, When she is set at meat, A laverock's leg, or tittling's wing, Is mair than she can eat; But, when she's in her bed at e'en, Between me and the wa'; She is a glutton devil, She swallows cocks an a'.
Feel free to be first to leave comment.