The Ploughman
written in 1788
The Ploughman - fact Summary
Celebration of Rural Labor
Robert Burns’ "The Ploughman" is a brief, celebratory song that praises the honest, hardworking rural laborer. The speaker admires the ploughman’s physical robustness, simple clothing, and steady habits, while promising domestic care and warmth after a day in the fields. Scenes of dancing, clean stockings, and a blue bonnet combine admiration of plain virtues with light erotic affection. The repeating chorus frames the ploughman as the most commendable of trades and locates the poem in Burns’s wider attachment to rural life and common folk.
Read Complete AnalysesThe Ploughman he's a bony lad, His mind is ever true, jo, His garters knit below his knee, His bonnet it is blue, jo. Then up wi't a', my Ploughman lad, And hey, my merry Ploughman; Of a'the trades that I do ken, Commend me to the Ploughman. My Ploughman he comes hame at e'en, He's aften wat and weary: Cast off the wat, put on the dry, And gae to bed, my Dearie. I will wash my Ploughman's hose, And I will dress his o'erlay; I will mak my Ploughman'g bed, And cheer him late and early. I hae been east, I hae been west, I hae been at Saint Johnston, The boniest sight that e'er I saw Was th' Ploughman laddie dancin. Snaw-white stocking on his legs, And siller buckles glancin; A gude blue bannet on his head, And O but he was handsome! Commend me to the Barn yard, And the Corn-mou, man; I never gat my Coggie fou Till I met wi' the Ploughman. Then up wi't a', my Ploughman lad, And hey, my merry Ploughman; Of a'the trades that I do ken, Commend me to the Ploughman.
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