The Book of Scottish Song/Hey for a lass

by Robert Burns (1759-1796)

For other versions of this work, see Hey for a Lass wi' a Tocher.

Hey for a lass.

[Written by Burns for George Thomson's collection, to an Irish tune, called "Balinamona Ora." "Your 'Hey for a lass wi' a tocher,'" says Thomson, "is a most excellent song, and with you the subject is something new indeed. It is the first time I have seen you debasing the god of soft desire into an amateur of acres and guineas." We have placed this song of Burns's in juxtaposition with one on a similar subject and in a similar spirit by Ramsay, that the reader may indulge his curiosity by comparing the two. In this case, we think, the older poet surpasses his distinguished successor in vigour and humour.]

Awa' wi' your witchcraft o' beauty's alarms,
The slender bit beauty you grasp in your arms;
O, gi'e me the lass that has acres o' charms,
O, gi'e me the lass wi' the weel-stockit farms!
Then, hey for a lass wi' a tocher,
Then, hey for a lass wi' a tocher,
Then, hey for a lass wi' a tocher!
The nice yellow guineas for me!

Your beauty's a flower in the morning that blows,
And withers the faster, the faster it grows;
But the rapturous charms o' the bonnie green knowes,
Ilk spring they're new-deckit wi' bonnie white ewes.

And e'en when this beauty your bosom has bless'd,
The brightest o' beauty may cloy when possess'd;
But the sweet yellow darlings, wi' Geordie imprest,
The langer ye ha'e them, the mair they're carest.

---