Robert Burns

The Lass of Cessnock Banks

The Lass of Cessnock Banks - meaning Summary

Admiration Anchored in Character

The speaker offers a series of conventional pastoral compliments to a young woman from Cessnock, comparing her features to dawn, flowers, and spring scenes. Each stanza returns to the refrain twa sparkling, rogueish een, reinforcing the speaker’s amused fascination. After enumerating her hair, cheeks, voice and breath, the poem closes by shifting emphasis from external beauty to inner worth: the woman’s mind and character are the true source of her charm. The tone is admiring, playful, and rooted in rural imagery.

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On Cessnock banks a lassie dwells; Could I describe her shape and mien; Our lassies a' she far excels, An' she has twa sparkling, rogueish een. She's sweeter than the morning dawn When rising Phoebus first is seen And dew-drops twinkle o'er the lawn; An' she has twa sparkling, rogueish een. She's stately, like yon youthful ash That grows the cowslips braes between And drinks the stream with vigour fresh; An' she has twa sparkling, rogueish een. She's spotless, like the flow'ring thorn With flow'rs so white and leaves so green When purest in the dewy morn; An' she has twa sparkling, rogueish een. Her looks are like the vernal May When ev'ning Phoebus shines serene, While birds rejoice on ev'ry spray; An' she has twa sparkling, rogueish een. Her hair is like the curling mist That climbs the mountain sides at e'en, When flow'r-reviving rains are past; An' she has twa sparkling, rogueish een. Her forehead's like the show'ry bow When gleaming sun-beams intervene And gild the distant mountain's brow; An' she has twa sparkling, rogueish een. Her cheeks are like yon crimson gem, The pride of all the flowery scene, Just opening on its thorny stem; An' she has twa sparkling, rogueish een. Her teeth are like the nightly snow When pale the morning rises keen, While hid the murmuring streamlets flow; An' she has twa sparkling, rogueish een. Her lips are like yon cherries ripe Which sunny walls from Boreas screen; They tempt the taste and charm the sight; An' she has twa sparkling, rogueish een. Her breath is like the fragrant breeze That gently stirs the blossom'd bean, When Phoebus sinks behind the seas; An' she has twa sparkling, rogueish een. Her voice is like the ev'ning thrush That sings on Cessnock banks unseen, While his mate sits nestling in the bush; An' she has twa sparkling, rogueish een. But it's not her air, her form, her face, Though matching beauty's fabled Queen; 'Tis the mind that shines in ev'ry grace, An' chiefly in her rogueish een.

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