Guest Author - Susan Keeping

This poem, which is in the Scottish dialect, was written by Robert Burns around 1783. Wherever you look, this poem has different titles. It might be titled Banks of Doon, The Banks of bonny Doone, or Ye banks and braes o' bonnie Doon as it is here. It also appears in two or three different versions, depending on where it was published.

The poem was later set to music and has become one of the most popular traditional Scottish songs. Two versions of the song first appeared in print in 1792 in the publication, Scots Musical Museum. Since then, the song has been recorded by many of the world's greatest singers of Scottish music.

The Doon of the poem is the river Doon which flows from Loch Doon in Carrick, Fife to the Firth of Clyde. On the way, it passes by close to Burns' birthplace in Alloway, Ayrshire.

Burns and his family left the house in Alloway in 1766 when he was seven, so it is doubtful that the poem is in any way an autobiographical one. Legend has it, according to the Complete Works of Robert Burns which was published in 1855, that the poem is about the beautiful Miss Kennedy from Dalgarrock who had her heart broken by a man named McDoual. Nevertheless, if you read it carefully you can feel the heartbreak and the longing for another. The poem is about the heartache and pain that love can cause, and is told from the perspective of a jilted or unrequited lover. While reading this poem you can understand why many of the Romantic poets considered Burns to be a pioneer of the movement.

Ye banks and braes o' bonnie Doon

by Robert Burns

Ye flowery banks o' bonnie Doon,
How can ye blume sae fair!
How can ye chant, ye little birds,
And I sae fu' o' care!

Thou'll break my heart, thou bonnie bird
That sings upon the bough;
Thou minds me o' the happy days
When my fause Luve was true.

Thou'll break my heart, thou bonnie bird
That sings beside thy mate;
For sae I sat, and sae I sang,
And wist na o' my fate.

Aft hae I roved by bonnie Doon
To see the woodbine twine,
And ilka bird sang o' its love;
And sae did I o' mine.

Wi' lightsome heart I pu'd a rose,
Frae aff its thorny tree;
And my fause luver staw the rose,
But left the thorn wi' me.