Classic and Contemporary Poetry
TO LUATH (ROBERT BURNS' DOG), by CHRISTOPHER DARLINGTON MORLEY Poet Analysis Poet's Biography First Line: Well, luath, man, when you came prancing Last Line: And yours the blame! Alternate Author Name(s): Hall, Galway Subject(s): Animals; Burns, Robert (1759-1796); Dogs; Poetry & Poets | ||||||||
"Darling Jean" was Jean Armour, a "comely country lass," whom Burns met at a penny wedding at Mauchline. They chanced to be dancing in the same quadrille when the poet's dog sprang to his master and almost upset some of the dancers. Burns remarked that he wished he could get any of the lasses to like him as well as his dog did. Some days afterward, Jean, seeing him pass as she was bleaching clothes on the village green, called to him and asked him if he had yet got any of the lasses to like him as well as his dog did. That was the beginning of an acquaintance that coloured all of Burns's life. -- NATHAN HASKELL DOLE. WELL, Luath, man, when you came prancing All glee to see your Robin dancing, His partner's muslin gown mischancing You leaped for joy! And little guessed what sweet romancing You caused, my boy! With happy bark, that moment jolly, You frisked and frolicked, faithful collie; His other dog, old melancholy, Was put to flight -- But what a tale of grief and folly You wagged that night! Ah, Luath, tyke, your bonny master Whose lyric pulse beat ever faster Each time he saw a lass and passed her His breast went bang! In many a woful heart's disaster He felt the pang! Poor Robin's heart, forever burning, Forever roving, ranting, yearning, From you that heart might have been learning To be less fickle! Might have been spared so many a turning And grievous prickle! Your collie heart held but one notion -- When Robbie jigged in sprightly motion You ran to show your own devotion And gambolled too, And so that tempest on love's ocean Was due to you! Well, it is ower late for preaching And hearts are aye too hot for teaching! When Robin with his eye beseeching By greenside came, Jeanie -- poor lass -- forgot her bleaching And yours the blame! | Discover our Poem Explanations and Poet Analyses!Other Poems of Interest...ENVY OF OTHER PEOPLE'S POEMS by ROBERT HASS THE NINETEENTH CENTURY AS A SONG by ROBERT HASS THE FATALIST: TIME IS FILLED by LYN HEJINIAN OXOTA: A SHORT RUSSIAN NOVEL: CHAPTER 192 by LYN HEJINIAN LET ME TELL YOU WHAT A POEM BRINGS by JUAN FELIPE HERRERA JUNE JOURNALS 6/25/88 by JUAN FELIPE HERRERA FOLLOW ROZEWICZ by JUAN FELIPE HERRERA HAVING INTENDED TO MERELY PICK ON AN OIL COMPANY, THE POEM GOES AWRY by HICOK. BOB ANIMAL CRACKERS by CHRISTOPHER DARLINGTON MORLEY |
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