A SONG, (WRITTEN FOR MR. STRUTHER'S COLLECTION OF SONGS.) Joanna Baillie Alexander Huber Editor Bodleian Libraries, University of Oxford
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Eighteenth-Century Poetry Archive
Taylor Institution Library St Giles' Oxford OX1 3NA UK info@eighteenthcenturypoetry.org https://www.eighteenthcenturypoetry.org/
Oxford This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. Baillie, Joanna, 1762-1851. Fugitive Verses. By Joanna Baillie, author of “Dramas on the Passions,“ etc. London Edward Moxon, Dover Street. MDCCCXL. 1840 pp. 271-274.

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A SONG , ( WRITTEN FOR MR. STRUTHER'S COLLECTION OF SONGS . ) IT was on a morn , when we were thrang , The kirn it crooned , the cheese was making , And bannocks on the girdle baking , When ane at the door chapp't loud and lang . Yet the auld gudewife and her mays sae tight , Of a' this bald din took sma ' notice I ween ; For a chap at the door in braid day-light , Is no like a chap that's heard at e'en . But the docksy auld laird of the Warlock glen , Wha waited without , half blate , half cheery , And lang'd for a sight o' his winsome deary , Raised up the latch , and cam ' crousely ben . His coat it was new , and his o'erlay was white , His mittens and hose were cozy and bean ; But a wooer that comes in braid day-light , Is no like a wooer that comes at e'en . He greeted the carline and lasses sae braw , And his bare liart pow , sae smoothly he straikit , And he looket about , like a body half glaikit , On bonny sweet Nanny the youngest of a' . " Ha laird ! " quo ' the carline , " and look ye that way ? Fy , let na ' sic fancies bewilder ye clean : An elderlin man , in the noon o' the day , Should be wiser than youngsters that come at e'en . " " Na , na , " quo ' the pawky auld wife , " I trow , You'll no' fash your head wi' a youthfu ' gilly , As wild and as skeigh as a muirland filly ; Black Madge is far better and fitter for you . " He hem'd and he haw'd , and he drew in his mouth , And he squeezed the blue bannet his twa hands between , For a wooer that comes when the sun's i' the south , Is mair landward than wooers that come at e'en . " Black Madge is sae carefu ' " — " What's that to me ? " " She's sober and ident , has sense in her noddle ; She's douce and respeckit " — " I care na ' a bodle , Love winna be guided , and fancy's free . " Madge tossed back her head wi' a saucy slight , And Nanny , loud laughing , ran out to the green ; For a wooer that comes when the sun shines bright , Is no like an wooer that comes at e'en . Then awa flung the Laird , and loud muttered he , " A' the daughters of Eve , between Orkney and Tweed o ! Black or fair , young or auld , dame or damsel or widow , May gang in their pride to the de'il for me ! But the auld gudewife and her mays sae tight Cared little for a' his stour banning , I ween ; For a wooer that comes in braid day light , Is no' like a wooer that comes at e'en .