Robert Burns

The Heron Ballads : Buy Braw Troggin

written in 1795

The Heron Ballads : Buy Braw Troggin - form Summary

Ballad-sale of Scandals

Framed as a comic ballad and imagined street-seller’s cry, the poem stages an auction of local scandals and damaged reputations. Repeating refrains and short verses give it a sing-song, broadsheet feel while a catalogue of “troggin” (trifles) names churches, nobles, and acquaintances to satirize social pretensions and moral failings. The ballad form lets Burns turn gossip into public spectacle, compressing characters and incidents into emblematic items for sale and using rhythm and repetition to intensify the mockery and communal recognition of local news.

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Wha will buy my Troggin, fine Election Ware; Broken trade o' Broughton A' in high repair? Buy braw Troggin, Frae the Banks o' Dee! Wha want Troggin, Let them come to me. Here's a noble Earl's Fame and high renown, For an auld sang It's thought the Gudes were stown. Here's the worth o' Broughton In a needle's e'e; Here's a reputation, Tint by Balmaghie. Here's an Honest Conscience, Might a Prince adorn, Frae the Downs o' Tinwald, - So was never worn. Here's its Stuff and Lynin, Cardoness's Head, Fine for a Soger, A' the wale o' lead. Here's a little Wadset, Buittle's scrap o' truth, Pawn'd in a gin-shop, Quenching holy drouth. Here's Armorial Bearings, Frae the Manse o' Urr; The crest, an auld crab-apple, Rotten at the core. Here is Satan's Picture, Like a bizzard-gled , Pouncing poor Redcastle, Sprawlin as a tade. Here's the Font where Douglas Stane and mortar names; Lately used at Caily Christening Murray's crimes. Here's the Worth and Wisdom Collieston can boast; By a thievish Midge they had been nearly lost. Here is Murray's Fragments O' the Ten Commands; Gifted by Black Jock To get them off his hands. Saw ye e'er sic Troggin? If to buy ye're slack, Hornie's turning Chapman, He'll buy a' the Pack! Buy braw Troggin, Frae the Banks o' Dee! Wha want Troggin, Let them come to me.

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