Muirland Meg
Muirland Meg - meaning Summary
A Bawdy Portrait of Desire
This poem is a frank, comic character sketch of Muirland Meg, a rural Scottish woman presented as sexually available and practical about exchange. Burns uses plain, folksy language and repeated chorus to portray Meg’s attractiveness, appetite for love, and willingness to trade affection for small goods. The speaker treats her both playfully and economically, reducing desire to barter while celebrating bodily charm and rustic conviviality. The poem reflects Burns’s interest in everyday rural characters and popular song forms, mixing humor, earthy sexuality, and social observation in a short ballad-like portrait.
Read Complete AnalysesAmong our young lassies there's Muirland Meg, She'll beg or she work, & she'll play or she beg, At thirteen her maidenhead flew to the gate, And the door o' her cage stands open yet. And for a sheep-cloot she'll do't, she'll do't, And for a sheep-cloot she'll do't; And for a toop-horn she'll do't to the morn, And merrily turn and do't, and do't. Her kittle black een they wad thirl you thro'. Her rose-bud lips cry, kiss me now; The curls and links o' her bonie black hair, Wad put you in mind that the lassie has mair. And for a sheep-cloot she'll do't, she'll do't, And for a sheep-cloot she'll do't; And for a toop-horn she'll do't to the morn, And merrily turn and do't, and do't. An armfu' o' love is her bosom sae plump, A span o' delight is her middle sae jimp; A taper, white leg, and a thumpin thie, And a fiddle near by, an ye play a wee! And for a sheep-cloot she'll do't, she'll do't, And for a sheep-cloot she'll do't; And for a toop-horn she'll do't to the morn, And merrily turn and do't, and do't. Love's her delight, and kissin's her treasure; She'll stick at nae price, and ye gie her gude measure, As lang's a sheep-fit, and as girt's a goose-egg, And that's the measure o' Muirland Meg. And for a sheep-cloot she'll do't, she'll do't, And for a sheep-cloot she'll do't; And for a toop-horn she'll do't to the morn, And merrily turn and do't, and do't.
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