The Yellow, Yellow Yorlin'
The Yellow, Yellow Yorlin' - meaning Summary
Coy Courtship and Sexual Play
This short Scots song describes a flirtatious encounter in May between a young man and a maid. The narrator pursues her with a repeated phrase about a "yellow yellow yorlin," while the woman protests modesty, invoking another suitor and her parents. He persists, seizes her, and after initial resistance she yields and invites him to return. The poem uses playful, colloquial language and dialect to stage a bawdy moment of courtship where teasing, persuasion, and eventual consent are foregrounded rather than deep psychological portrait or moralizing commentary.
Read Complete AnalysesIt fell on a day, in the flow'ry month o' May, All on a merry merry mornin', I met a pretty maid, an' unto her I said, I wad fian fin' your yellow yellow yorlin'. O no, young man, says she, you're a stranger to me, An' I am anither man's darlin', Wha has baith sheep an' cows, that's feedin' in the hows, An' a cock for my yellow yellow yorlin'. But, if I lay you down upon the dewy ground, You wad nae be the waur ae farthing; An' that happy, happy man, he never wou'd ken That I play'd wi' your yellow yellow yorlin'. O fie, young man, says she, I pray you let me be, I wad na for five pound sterling; My mither wad gae mad, an' sae wad my dad, If you play'd wi' my yellow yellow yorlin'. But I took her by the waist, an' I laid her down in haste, For a' her squakin' and squalin'; The lassie soon grew tame, an' bade me come again For to play wi' her yellow yellow yorlin'.
Feel free to be first to leave comment.