Hey for a Lass Wi' a Tocher
written in 1796
Hey for a Lass Wi' a Tocher - meaning Summary
Money Over Fleeting Beauty
Burns’ song favors practical marriage choices over romantic idealization. The speaker rejects ephemeral physical beauty as a seductive but fading “flower,” and praises a woman with a tocher (dowry), land, and “yellow guineas” as offering lasting value and security. Repeated choruses turn the poem into a rollicking, persuasive ballad voice that privileges economic stability and rural prosperity. The poem mixes humor and plain-speaking to argue that wealth and productive farms are more reliable foundations for marriage than transient charms.
Read Complete AnalysesAwa wi' your witchcraft o' beauty's alarms, The slender bit beauty you grasp in your arms: O, gie me the lass that has acres o' charms, O, gie me the lass wi' the weel-stockit farms. Then hey for a lass wi' a tocher, then hey for a lass wi' a tocher, Then hey for a lass wi' a tocher, the nice yellow guineas for me. Your beauty's a flower, in the morning that blows, And withers the faster the faster it grows; But the rapturous charm o' the bonie green knowes, Ilk Spring they're new deckit wi' bonie white yowes. Then hey for a lass wi' a tocher, then hey for a lass wi' a tocher, Then hey for a lass wi' a tocher, the nice yellow guineas for me. And e'en when this Beauty your bosom has blest, The brightest o' beauty may cloy when possess'd; But the sweet, yellow darlings wi' Geordie impress'd, The langer ye hae them, - the mair they're carest! Then hey for a lass wi' a tocher, then hey for a lass wi' a tocher, Then hey for a lass wi' a tocher, the nice yellow guineas for me.
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