Robert Burns

Supper Is Na Ready

Supper Is Na Ready - meaning Summary

Domestic Restraint and Humor

This short lyric presents a comic domestic exchange in plain Scots. A suitor proposes intimacy while playfully deferential; the lady answers with polite modesty and a practical refusal, postponing the encounter because supper is not ready. The poem compresses character, social manners, and restraint into a two-stanza scene, contrasting romantic impulse with household routine. Its tone blends humor and gentility, showing how everyday obligations and decorum shape sexual negotiation and power within a courting relationship.

Read Complete Analyses

Roseberry to his lady says, "My hinnie and my succour, "O shall we do the thing you ken, "Or shall we take our supper?" Wi' modest face, sae fu' o' grace, Replied the bonny lady; "My noble lord do as you please, "But supper is na ready".

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