O Can Ye Labour Lee, Young Man
O Can Ye Labour Lee, Young Man - meaning Summary
Skill Proves True Worth
Burns offers a plain warning about practical competence in courtship. The speaker rejects a young man because he "coudna labour lee"—unable to work properly—and insists he go back where he came from. Using rural farming images (stubble rigs, fallow land, the ploughman casting off roughness), the poem links moral worth to the ability to do steady, honest labour. It treats work as a test of character and matrimonial suitability, valuing reliability and skill over bluster or idle pretension.
Read Complete AnalysesI fee'd a man at Martinmas, Wi arle pennies three; But a' the fau't I had to him, He coudna labour lee. O can ye labour lee, young man, O can ye labour lee; Gae back the road ye cam agin, Ye shall never scorn me. A stibble rig is easy plough'd, An' fallow land is free; But shat a silly coof is he, That canna labour lee. The pretty bush, an' benty knowe, The ploughman points his sock in, He sheds the roughness, lays it by, An' bauldly ploughs his yokin'.
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