The Modiewark
The Modiewark - meaning Summary
Sexual Mischief and Folk Humor
Robert Burns’ playful lyric treats the mysterious "modiewark" as a cheeky, sexual nuisance that infiltrates the speaker’s clothing and domestic life. The poem uses a repetitive refrain and comic escalation to depict lust as an almost animate, mischievous force that requires consulting a "learned clark"—a humorous appeal to authority that fails to quell the bodily urge. Anecdotal detail (Marjorie and Willy) locates the poem in ordinary rural intimacy and frames desire as communal gossip. Overall the tone is bawdy, light, and deliberately teasing rather than moralizing.
Read Complete AnalysesThe modiewark has done me ill, And below my apron has biggit a hill; I maun consult some learned clark About this wanton Modiewark. An' o the wanton modiewark, The weary wanton modiewark; I maun consult some learned clark About this wanton Modiewark. O first it gat between my taes, Out o'er my garter niest it gaes; At length it crap below my sark, The weary wanton modiewark. This modiewark, tho' it be blin'; If ance its nose you lat it in, Then to the hilts, within a crack It's out o' sight, the modiewark. When Marjorie was made a bride, An Willy lay down by her side, Syne nocht was hard, when a' was dark, But kicking t the modiewark. An' o the wanton modiewark, The weary wanton modiewark; I maun consult some learned clark About this wanton Modiewark.
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