Ay Waukin O
written in 1790
Ay Waukin O - meaning Summary
Sleepless Longing in Summer
Robert Burns's 'Ay Waukin O' presents a speaker kept awake by longing for a beloved. Set in a warm, floral summer landscape, the poem contrasts outward pastoral calm with inner restlessness: day brings dreaming and waking with no sleep, night brings isolation and tears. Refrains express persistent wakefulness and emotional fatigue. The Scots language voice frames desire as both gentle and painful, blending affection with melancholy. The poem centers on the bodily effects of yearning - insomnia, tears - and on the speaker's single-minded preoccupation with their Dearie
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Simmer's a pleasant time, Flowers of every colour; The water rins o'er the heugh, And I long for my true lover! Ay waukin, Oh, Waukin still and weary: Sleep I can get nane, For thinking on my Dearie. When I sleep I dream, When I wauk I'm irie; Sleep can I get nane For thinking on my Dearie. Ay waukin, Oh, Waukin still and weary: Sleep I can get nane, For thinking on my Dearie. Lanely night comes on, A' the lave are sleepin: I think on my bonie lad, And I bleer my een wi' greetin. Ay waukin, Oh, Waukin still and weary: Sleep I can get nane, For thinking on my Dearie.
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