Mary Morison
written in 1780
Mary Morison - meaning Summary
Unreturned Longing for Mary
Robert Burns' lyric expresses a speaker’s intense, unreciprocated devotion to Mary Morison. He imagines secret meetings and treasures her smiles, which make work and hardship worthwhile. At a public dance he feels absent and jealous, finding every other pleasure diminished because none of them are Mary. The final stanza turns to pleading: he asks whether she will destroy his peace or at least show pity, presenting love as the speaker’s defining, vulnerable identity. The poem is rooted in personal feeling and idealization rather than narrative action.
Read Complete AnalysesO Mary, at thy window be, It is the wish'd, the trysted hour! Those smiles and glances let me see, That make the miser's treasure poor: How blythely was I bide the stour, A weary slave frae sun to sun, Could I the rich reward secure, The lovely Mary Morison. Yestreen, when to the trembling string The dance gaed thro' the lighted ha', To thee my fancy took its wing, I sat, but neither heard nor saw: Tho' this was fair, and that was braw, And yon the toast of a' the town, I sigh'd, and said among them a', "Ye are na Mary Morison." Oh, Mary, canst thou wreck his peace, Wha for thy sake wad gladly die? Or canst thou break that heart of his, Whase only faut is loving thee? If love for love thou wilt na gie, At least be pity to me shown; A thought ungentle canna be The thought o' Mary Morison.
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