Our John's Brak Yestreen
Our John's Brak Yestreen - meaning Summary
Domestic Comic Dispute
This short Scots comic poem depicts two neighboring wives sitting outdoors and arguing playfully over whether male genitalia are made of bone or sinew. Their debate mixes domestic gossip, coarse humor, and vivid dialectal speech. Each woman offers a humorous, bodily observation as evidence, and the exchange ends with a bawdy claim presented as proof. The poem sketches rural life and female talk rather than developing a moral point, using earthy comedy and local voice to create a brief, lively scene of everyday dispute and gossip.
Read Complete AnalysesTwa neebor wives sat i' the sun, A twynin' at their rocks, An' they an argument began, An' a' the plea was cocks. 'Twas whether they were sinnens strang, Or whether they were bane? An' how they row'd about your thumb, And how they stan't themlane? First, Raichie gae her rock a rug, An syne she claw'd her tail; "When our Tam draws on his breeks, It waigles like a flail". Says Bess, "they're bane I will maintain, And proof in han' I'll gie; For our John's it brak yestreen, And the margh ran down my thie".
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