Ken Ye Na Our Lass, Bess?
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Ken Ye Na Our Lass, Bess? - meaning Summary
Playful Rural Courting Mischief
This brief, comic folk-song presents a teasing exchange about Bess and Tam. Bess is said to have built a magpie’s nest between her "lily white thies," and Tam climbs up and breaks the eggs so that "the white's ran down her thie." The poem uses rustic dialogue and erotic suggestion to create playful, bawdy humor. It stages a small narrative of courtship and mischief, relying on vivid, blunt imagery and repetition to deliver its joke quickly and directly to a rural audience.
Read Complete AnalysesO ken ye na our lass, Bess? An' ken ye na our lass, Bess? Between her lily white thies She's biggit a magpie's nest. An' ken ye na our lad, Tam? An' ken ye na our lad, Tam? He's on o' a three-fitted stool, An' up to the nest he clamb. An' what did he there, think ye? An' what did he there, think ye? He brak a' the eggs o' the nest, An' the white's ran down her thie.
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