by Robert Burns (1759 - 1796)
O whistle, an' I'll come to ye, my lad
Language: Scottish (Scots)
Chorus
O whistle, [an']1 I'll come to ye, my lad,
O whistle, [an']1 I'll come to ye, my lad;
Tho' [fahther]2, [an']1 mother, [an']1 a' should gae mad,
[O, whistle an' I'll come to ye, my lad!]3
I
But warily tent, when ye come to court me,
And come nae unless the back-yett be a-jee;
Syne up the back-style and let naebody see,
And come as ye were na comin to me ,
And come as ye were na comin to me !
II
At kirk, or at market whene'er ye meet me,
Gang by me as tho' that ye car'd nae a flie;
But steal me a blink o' your bonie black e'e,
Yet look as ye were na lookin at me,
Yet look as ye were na lookin at me.
III
Ay vow and protest that ye care na for me,
And whyles ye may lightly my beauty a wee;
But court nae anither, tho' jokin ye be,
For fear that she wyle your fancy frae me,
For fear that she wyle your fancy frae me.
About the headline (FAQ)
View original text (without footnotes)Confirmed with The Poetry of Robert Burns, edited by William Ernest Henley and Thomas F. Henderson. Vol. III, Songs. Edinburgh, 1897. Note: in some editions, the fourth line of the chorus reads "Thy Jeanie will venture wi' ye, my lad."
1 Hopekirk: "and"2 Hopekirk: "father"
3 omitted by Hopekirk
Text Authorship:
- by Robert Burns (1759 - 1796), "O, whistle an' I'll come to ye, my lad!" [author's text checked 1 time against a primary source]
Musical settings (art songs, Lieder, mélodies, (etc.), choral pieces, and other vocal works set to this text), listed by composer (not necessarily exhaustive):
- by John Linton Gardner (1917 - 2011), "O whistle an'I'll come to you", op. 213 no. 5, published 1993 [ mixed chorus and orchestra ], from A Burns Sequence, no. 5, London : Oxford University Press [sung text not yet checked]
- by Helen Hopekirk (1856 - 1945), "O, Whistle and I'll Come to You, My Lad" [ voice and piano ] [sung text checked 1 time]
- by Mervyn, Lord Horder, the Second Baron of Ashford (1910 - 1998), "O whistle and I'll come to you" [ voice and piano ], from Five Burns Songs, no. 2 [sung text not yet checked]
Settings in other languages, adaptations, or excerpts:
- Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by (Johann) Philipp Kaufmann (1802 - 1846) , no title [an adaptation] ; composed by Friedrich Wilhelm Jähns.
- Also set in German (Deutsch), a translation by Ad. Lann ; composed by Karl Heinrich Carsten Reinecke.
- Go to the text. [Note: the text is not in the database yet.]
- Go to the text. [Note: the text is not in the database yet.]
Research team for this page: Emily Ezust [Administrator] , Andrew Schneider [Guest Editor] , Johann Winkler
This text was added to the website between May 1995 and September 2003.
Line count: 23
Word count: 184